


Something Ugly, Something Beautiful

by Recchinon



Series: Beautifully Ugly [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-25 23:42:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3829246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Recchinon/pseuds/Recchinon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi was a handsome and successful business man. Hange Zoe was a woman who had to sell her body to help her friend. They met and the complicated love story began</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Levi was really angry. He gritted his teeth as he read the card he just found on his table. Even without any name on it, he recognize the neat handwriting on it. He couldn't believe that she could do this to him. He had been so nice to her and all but now she left him without even bother to tell him first.

Who did she think she is?

Levi took out his phone from his jacket, pressed the speed dial and wait for few seconds before he heard her familiar voice answering the phone.

"Levi, did you read my letter?"

Of course he did. Why the hell he even called her now?

"It isn't even a letter," the raven haired man spat, "It is a fucking card. A shitty pink card. For fuck sake, Petra, you left a pink card with laces on my table," he hissed, "where the fuck are you right now."

Petra had known Levi for a long time, she already had known that he would be pissed off after he found her message but she had decided that this time she would just do what she want to do.

"Didn't I write it on the card?" Petra sighed, "I am on vacation, Levi... I need it. Me and Aurou need this to fix our marriage. We barely had time together because I was too busy working for you. He was actually starting to get jealous because I spent more time with you than him."

Levi gritted his teeth. He knew that Petra was right. She had been working so hard for him with almost no day off, and she was a married woman it wouldn't be fair to keep stealing her away from her family, but she should have known that his schedule this month was hectic and he needed her, "but there would be another ball soon."

"Well you can bring your girlfriend to escort you."

"You know I have no girlfriend," he groaned, "you have to come back here and escort me to that ball."

Of course Petra knew, Levi didn't have a girlfriend. He had been really busy with his work that he didn't have chance to date anyone. He didn't seem to had any interest to have a girlfriend. Especially since he already had Petra to company him whenever he had to attend some kind of ball or party. Levi seemed to enjoy being a bachelor, Petra on the other hand had started to get worried about the man. He had been thirty two and he really needs to stop relying on her for this matter. First, she had a husband and second, he needed a girlfriend. Really, Petra had always thought that having a girlfriend might be good for him. He had been really stiff and boring. Petra wanted him to fall in love like a normal man. That was also one of the reasons why she chose to go on a vacation without telling him first.

"Listen to me, Levi, there have always been many girls around you. They all would be more than happy to escort you. What you had to do was just asking them and they would definitely agree." Even though he couldn't see her, Levi could imagine Petra face right now, he could see the usually calm and gentle woman must have been smirking right now. She must think that this was funny, "You can choose the cutest one, so it wouldn't look bad for you if she wore high he-"

"Fuck you, Petra Ral. Please remind yourself, there would definitely no bonus for you this month."

Levi turned the phone off and put it back to his pocket.

In the end he had no heart to fire her.

.

.

When Levi left his office for a week, he drove his car alone. Erd had insisted to drove him home but Levi dismissed the driver, told him that he want to drive alone to clear his mind despite the fact that he had just been moving to this place for a week now and he wasn't familiar with the city. Levi told Erd that at least he had a GPS in the car so he would be okay.

Or so he thought.

One thing about Levi, he was an analog man. Which meant, Levi was not really good with technology. His phone was an old type which can only be used to make a phone call and send SMS, it didn't even support multimedia message. All email and stuff was normally handled by his assistant, Petra, who would be so nice to print all of the email for Levi to read.

Now that Petra was on a vacation, Levi wondered what would happen to the company. Especially now, when they just started to open a branch in Trost. There must be many things to be done here, actually that had been the reason why he had been here right now, to make sure that everything went okay for the new branch. There had been so many invitations for business dinners and galas that he had to attend while he was here and Petra chose this moment to go on vacation with her husband.

Levi wondered if only he married Petra that time, she would still be here right now and he wouldn't have to worry about going to the ball alone. But that would be so wrong because they both know that Levi was not a husband material and marrying her for those reasons sounded so cruel.

Aurou was lucky, Levi thought as he turned on the same corner for the third time already, he had a bad feeling that he got lost, to have someone like Petra as his wife.

Levi cursed loudly when he saw the restaurant he had just seen twenty minutes ago. It was official. He got lost.

The handsome CEO glared at the GPS installed on his car, angry because he didn't know how to operate it. He promised that once he got back to his hotel he would ask one of his men to uninstall that stupid device and install something better instead. The one that could be easier to use.

Levi looked at his watch and frowned.

He wondered if he could get back before dinner time.

.

Zoe Hange had never really liked men. They were all dirty, nasty and pervert. All men around her would treat women like some kind of commodity. Thinking that they could do anything to them as long as they pay them. Too bad, in her line of business, there was 99.99% chance for her to meet this kind of guys. The men who would treat her like a whore.

Well, technically, she was really a whore, not that she was proud of this, and she had no choice but to let those men do whatever they want to her as long as the pay.

She needed money, they had money. All fair and square. But that didn't change the fact that she hated those men. She knew that she was being hypocrite but it wasn't like she had other job to do. She had no other skill and right now there had no other way she could get fast money if she didn't do this.

She had a reason.

Standing at the roadside, near a lamp post, Zoe grinned and waved at almost every car passing by. Night at Trost was cold, especially in this season, but Zoe was only wearing a mini leather skirt and skimpy black tank-top. She was freezing but she hadn't gotten any man tonight so she had to be patient.

"Hey Zoe!"

Zoe knew this voice. She groaned and turned, hands on her hips and frowned at the blond man who was now grinning ear to ear.

"What's it, Mike? Can't you see that I am busy?"

The guy named Mike lifted his thick brow, "really? I see that you're alone."

Zoe pouted, Mike was teasing her, "what's it? Really, I can't be seen with you now, people would think that I've a deal with you."

Mike shrugged, "I'll go... I'll go, I just want to tell you that Nile was looking for you."

The chestnut haired woman sighed. She ruffled her messy rat-nest hair with one hand. When she heard that name, she knew what it meant. That bastard was asking for money, and she hadn't even gotten any customer tonight. Zoe took out her glasses from her purse and wear it before she open her wallet. She had only thirty dollars left.

"Give it to him," she gave all of the money she had to Mike, before he could say anything, she quickly added, "I know it is not enough but I promised that I would give him more later."

Mike looked at the money in his hand and let out a heavy sigh. His blue eyes were on her once more when he apologized, "I am really sorry. Nanaba was really sorry too. If only we could do anything..."

Zoe waved her hand. Before she put back her glasses on the purse, she saw an expensive car was coming closer from a far, "don't worry about it, just focus on her rehabilitation now. Now just go. Send my regards to Nanaba."

The tall guy mumbled another thank you before he left. Zoe barely had time to take care of her messy hair when the car stopped in front of her. She smiled seductively as the window pulled down to reveal the handsome man inside the car.

"Hey handsome," Zoe was leaning closer to the car, trying not to touch it, she knew this kind of rich guys wouldn't like it when people like her got their car dirty, "wanna have fun with me?"

The guy was frowning.

Zoe couldn't see clearly without her glasses but she could see that the man had an unhappy face right now.

"I can't find my way back to my hotel," said the man in the car, "could you help me?"

"Sure," Zoe grinned, "fifty dollars."

The man cursed, "are you crazy?!"

She shrugged, this man didn't even try to take a glance on her cleavage, "take it or leave it. Listen, handsome boy, everything has a price." Zoe offered him another business smile.

He looked at her for a moment before he finally sighed in defeat. Zoe was surprised though. She didn't think that he would give up this soon.

"Fine," said the man tiredly. He had been driving around for hours now and he just needed to get back to his room. Besides fifty dollars was not a big deal for him.

Zoe looked at the man expectantly.

"Get in the car."


	2. Chapter 2

"This is a very nice car. You must be really rich to be able to buy this kind of car."

The shorter man didn't say anything. His eyes were focusing on the unfamiliar street. His perpetual scowl deepened as she continued talking. He wondered if the whore would ever shut her mouth up. It must be the worst day in his life. First his secretary had just betrayed him by taking a long vacation all of sudden and then the fucking GPS in his fucking expensive car didn't work and now he had to pay a fucking dirty whore only to be his temporary GPS until at least he reached the hotel.

"You know, I always love cars. I am a good driver but I don't have any car," Levi had been ignoring her this whole time but apparently it didn't make her shut her mouth and stop talking, "Ah, turn left after the traffic lamp, le- what are you doing?! Turn left, I said, not right!"

Levi's ears turned red as he hit the brake. That was her fault. She was so noisy that he lost his concentration. Levi had always been bad in reading direction, hell, he even couldn't really tell the difference between north or south, west or east.

Left or right.

Zoe bit her lower lip to prevent herself from laughing as he parked his car on the road side. This was the first time she had witnessed with her own eyes that someone couldn't tell which one is left and which one is right. Levi however, glared at the woman and gritted his teeth. His eyes told her that she would regret it if she dared to comment about what had just happened. Zoe wasn't stupid. She just grinned when the raven haired man tilted his chin cockily.

"You drive."

Zoe grinned, "Are you serious?! I could drive this baby?!"

Seeing how excited she was, Levi wondered if this was a right decision. This car was expensive and though the insurance would cover any scratch, he still valued his life. This woman, whore, really knew how to drive, didn't she? For few seconds Levi thought carefully. Could he trust this woman driving his car?

It was reckless, really, but Levi was too tired and what he wanted then was just to get back to his room and call it a day. He needed to rest, this had been a long day.

"Just drive carefully."

Finally he took off his seat belt, ready to let the four eyes to take his seat.

As they switched seat, Levi couldn't help but to see the feral grin on her face. The shitty glasses she wore couldn't hide the glint in her dark chocolate eyes. She whistled excitedly as she turned the engine on and heard how smooth it sound. She was excited, he could see it. Now he just hoped that her excitement would not scratch his car, or even worst, kill them.

"This is awesome," Zoe grinned, she loved the sound of the engine, "this must be a dream..."

The pale man clenched his teeth, "You really know how to drive, don't you?"

Zoe laughed as she tilted her head to see the rich man. She smirked mysteriously, "Don't bite your tongue." and that was her only and last warning before she stepped on the gas pedal.

.

To be honest, Levi didn't hate speed. No, he actually kind of like it. In fact it was not the speed but the way she drove the car that made him dizzy. As soon as she hit the gas, she looked like someone else. The look in her eyes made her look different. Levi refused to look at the road so he used that chance to study her better. He just realized that he hadn't really look at her at all since he let her hop in his car.

Judging from her look, he knew that she was not as young as some girls who sold themselves on the street. She didn't really look like them, except for the skimpy outfit and cheap make up she wore, there were something about this woman that made her different from the other prostitutes he knew. Not that he knew any, but he had seen some on the street, enough to give him some perception about those girls. This woman, however lacked of seductiveness those whore usually had in them. She was not ugly, really, her face was not beautiful, or even cute but it was okay. She was tall and her legs were long but she lacked of big boobs and curvy waist. Her skin was tanned, though it looked natural unlike the tan those girls got from the tanning saloon, and her dark reddish brown hair was tied in a messy ponytail. Judging from her look, he could almost see that she was not doing this by choice.

No, Levi had to remind himself, he was not attracted to her. Curious, yes, but not attracted. Women were creature that was there to give him headache and whores were just... No, whores were out of his league.

Levi's train of thought was cut when she suddenly hit the brake. He frowned and looked outside then realized that they were in front of his hotel already. Levi turned to see the woman, who was now grinning widely at him.

"Here we are!" she said excitedly, he wondered if this woman could ever turn her excitement off, "so, may I get your payment please?"

Levi scowled for a moment. Now that their business had done, what would she do? Would she returned to that road side and started trying to, once again, selling her body to some random man. Somehow Levi disliked the idea.

'No,' he reminded himself, 'that was not your business'

Levi sighed as he opened his wallet and pulled off some bucks and gave it to her. His permanent scowl was still there even when she accepted the money with a wide grin on her face. She counted the money and whistled happily.

"This is more than what I asked you," she said matter of fact but she didn't seem to mind it at all, if anything her grin got impossibly wider and she pulled him into a quick and sudden kiss before muttered, "thanks!".

Zoe ignored the fact that Levi was wiping his mouth in disgust as soon as she pulled away from him. She laughed at his expression. She could tell that this was the first time a whore had kissed him and he didn't like it at all. She smirked satisfied with his reaction as she left car. The brunette was about to step out of the car when the man caught her wrist and stopped her from leaving.

Zoe turned around, one brow lifted in humor, "what?"

"Where are you going?"

She snickered, "where do you think?"

"Back to that street, trying to sell your body."

Zoe sighed, his voice was stern and she could not really guess what he had in his mind right now. She tried to pull her hand away but his grip was surprisingly strong for a man in his height, well, not that she didn't realize the muscles behind his expensive tailored clothes.

"Listen," Zoe shook her head, she didn't know what he wanted from her but she really need to go now. She had no time to waste here with some rich man who didn't even plan to fuck her, "I am not selling my body, never, my body is my possession..." when she saw him narrowing his eyes, she continued cleverly, "what I sell is my service. I drive you back to the hotel, you pay. I give you a nice satisfying blow job, you pay. I cook you dinner, you pay. Simple like that. It's the service, not the body."

Levi hadn't let her hand go as he talked coolly, "so what you wanna say is, you're gonna do anything for money, huh?"

Zoe shrugged, "I don't want to steal or kill though, but yeah, basically that's what I mean."

For a second their eyes met and she got a feeling that the rich man had something in his mind right now.

"So, how about this," he looked at her dead in the eye, "I buy your time, three weeks from tonight. You have to be mine completely. "

"W-what?"

Zoe eyes widened when he yanked her to get closer to him. One of his hand move to the back of her head, forcing her to look at him. Her face was really hot, from this angle and distant, she just realized how handsome the man was.

"Don't worry, " their face was so close that his warm breath tickled her skin. She wished he couldn't hear her hearbeat, "I will pay uou handsomely,you just have to be mine."

Zoe blinked.

"Half million."

"What?"

"For three weeks, I am going to pay you half a million, how does it sound?"

Zoe couldn't believe what she heard. She looked deep into his eyes but she found no joke in his steel blue eyes.

Oh fuck.

.

.

"Do you really think Levi would be okay?"

The tall blond man chuckled. He hold his phone in one hand while his other hand played with the pen. In front of him there were still a lot of documents he needed to sign.

"Don't worry Petra, he wouldn't be okay, but that is the point." the man smiled though he knew she couldn't see him, "we both want him to stop hiding in his shell, don't we? Now he would have no choice but to leave his bubble. "

Erwin heard the younger woman sighed. He knew that Petra had worked for Levi since long time ago and worrying about her boss had been some kind of habit for the auburn haired woman. Both of them care about the dark haired man, that was exactly why they did this. Erwin realized that despite he might kill him if he knew that this had been his plan, later the shorter guy would thank him.

"Levi could never interact with other people..." Petra sounded really worried now, "he hated people. How could he..."

"Nah," Erwin cut her in, "don't worry about him, it's about time he found someone out there that could teach him... You know, this could be his only chance to find a woman and fall in love..."

Petra laughed, "or a man. We could never guess with Levi."

The older man chuckled, "or a man," he agreed, "now, just focus on your vacation with your family. Send my regard to your husband."

Though he couldn't see her, he knew the woman was smiling right now, "sure. Please take care, I would contact you again later."

"Okay, good night."

After he hung up, Erwin put the phone back on the desk. Smiling at the idea of Levi falling in love with someone, he closed his eyes and shook his head. Oh well, things would be more interesting that way.

.


	3. Chapter 3

Zoe could feel those people's eyes on her as she walked into the luxurious hotel. She would realize that some of those women clearly made some kind of disgusted face if only she wasn't too busy looking around, admiring the architecture of the most expensive hotel in town. She was wearing his jacket, and followed him to the elevator, trying to keep up with his pace and while trying not to slip. It was hard to walk fast in those heels, especially because the shoes was old and cheap, it made it harder for her to keep up with him. For a short man sure he walked kind of fast.

Fortunately, the shorter man stopped in front of the elevator.

Zoe realized that the woman who waited for the elevator with them was glaring at her. Zoe grinned at the woman and rolled her eyes when the woman quickly looked away from her, disgust painted on her pug face. Her husband, in the other hand was still ogling at her legs despite his wife's murderous glare. Zoe really wanted to flirt the husband only to mess with the wife but she knew Levi would be really angry if she did that.

"How could someone from the street get in this hotel?" complained the woman to no one in particular, she just said it so the taller woman could hear that, "How many men had she slept with to have enough money to spend a night here? Do you think it is safe to let someone from the street spending a night here?"

The husband hissed, clearly unhappy with his wife's blatant speech.

Zoe was about to say something but Levi glared at her as if warning her to stay calm and behave. Zoe gritted her teeth but said nothing. It wasn't like she had never been insulted before. She knew it would be useless to let this woman get on her nerves oh so easily. She needed to be calm. Yes, calm... Think about something fun, yeah, that wouldn't be hard.

"And how about the hygiene? Maybe she has some disease. We could never know..."

"How if we tried to find it out," Zoe cut her in effectively, the woman narrowed her eyes but Zoe just grinned, "about the disease, do you want to try? Oh, maybe your husband wants to try..." Zoe licked her lip as she pulled her skirt to show more skin, "do you realize your husband has been ogling at my legs this whole time?" Zoe added with a wink, "I can give you half price, sir, I know how high maintenance is your wife, don't worry I can be a good stress reliever."

The woman's face turned redder than her curly hair. She stomped her feet, almost childishly, before she grabbed her husband's arms and pulled him away. Zoe grinned in victory and made a sign of "call me" to the husband before they turned in the corner. Zoe was laughing hysterically when the elevator's door finally opened for them. Levi walked into the empty elevator and she followed.

"Wow, you stayed in the pent house?" Zoe whistled when he pushed the button, "I knew you are rich but not this rich!"

The man ignored her and let out a tired sigh, "listen, never again, do something embarrassing like that. Not when you are with me, understood? Behave! I want you to be my escort which means you have to be at least more graceful and..."

"Wait," complained the taller woman, "she started it! Can't you see? What do you want me to do? Just listen to all shit she said gracefully?" Zoe snorted,"Are you crazy? I might be poor but I have some pride left in me. If she wanted to talk shit about me, at least she had to give me some money. That way I wouldn't mind even if she called my mom a whore." she grinned at him lazily, "well that's gonna be the truth though."

Levi shook his head. He had been really tired today and now talking with this woman made his head ready to explode. First of all, he didn't even understand why he asked her to follow him back to his room. Was it pity? No, Levi Rivaille, the successful young man would never pity anyone. He didn't quite understand but the thought of the young woman selling herself on the road side was just...

Well not like he cared or what. Of course no... Definitely not.

Levi heard a whistle as they entered the penthouse. He ignored her comment about how luxurious the place was and her question about how much he had to pay to stay there. He sat down on a couch and raised a single hand to stop her from babbling anymore shit, this time was his turn to say something. Thankfully, Zoe understood the sign and stop talking. Still wearing his jacket, she stood in front of him, looking at the tired man with her doe eyes, waiting for anything he planned to say.

"Listen, do you understand why I brought you here?"

Zoe lifted a brow, "well, you did say you didn't want to fuck me so, it's not about fucking, did it?" She put a finger on her lip and paused for a moment to think but then she shrugged and the grinned was back on her face, she wouldn't mind fucking but if he didn't want to, it didn't matter too, "nope, no idea, mind to tell me?"

"Well, my private secretary left me, she didn't say anything and just..."

"You got dumped?!"

Levi glared at her and she apologized half-heartedly, still grinning. She just could never believe that someone would dump him. Look at him! He was rich! Sure he was a bit too short for a man but hey, he had the money and the look. Sure he was kinda grumpy like an old man but she still couldn't find any reason any woman would dump a man like him. Well maybe it was the sex? Was the sex with him that bad?

Well, if only she had the chance to find out about it...

"Now if you please let me continue?" Levi gritted his teeth. Zoe made a gesture with her hand, telling him to continue, "so, my secretary left me with no advance notice which makes me really disappointed," he sighed before he continued, "to make it simple, now I have some social events to attend and without my secretary, I have to attend them alone and I don't want that. That's why I pay you to be my escort."

Zoe raised her hand, "interruption, Sir! Why don't you just ask your girlfriend to be your date?"

"I have no girlfriend, and I don't want to give those girls any wrong idea by asking them to be my date," he explained tiredly, "I can't possibly come alone either. First, it would look pathetic, second, I need a woman by my side to keep those gold diggers away from me. Now what you have to do is simple. Be my escort, behave, dress properly, don't embarrass me and don't let anyone know who you really are. That's all. After three weeks I will leave this town and you get your payment."

Zoe frowned, "That doesn't sound simple at all to me. There are so many things I have to remember."

The shorter man shook his head, "no, you just need to keep your big mouth shut and it should be okay. For these three weeks, you stay here. Tomorrow I would give you some money, get some proper dress in town. I don't want them to think that I am dating a whore."

"But I am a whore."

Levi stood up from the couch, ignoring her remark, "the couch is good enough for you, right? The pent house is huge but there is only a bed and I will pay you so you sleep in the couch," he walked to the main bed room, he needed to get off this sweaty shirt and took a shower before sleep, "I want you to stay away from my bed."

Zoe snorted as she threw herself on the couch he had been sitting on before, "as if I would rape you."

Levi stopped and turned only to glare at the woman, "there is a bathroom over there if you want to use it. Just don't leave any mess."

She waved at him and grinned widely.

.

.

The hot shower felt so really good on his pale skin.

After the whole shit happened today, the hot shower he was taking right now was the best remedy. He was really tired but he had been sweaty and he hated the feeling of being dirty and sweaty, there was no way he would sleep just like that. He washed his whole body while thinking about his day. It had been so surreal. First his secretary had just betrayed him, then he asked a whore he met to be his GPS and now he brought the said whore to his room, well not his bed room, but still...

Levi stepped outside the bathroom, wearing only bathrobe while drying his dark hair with a towel. He was ready to get changed into his clean pajama before he realized it had been really quite for a while. After spending few hours with the shitty glasses, he realized that quite and her didn't really match. So, despite his tired body he walked quietly to the living room where he had left her earlier.

Levi stopped in front of the couch and sighed.

The woman was sleeping like a log, snoring rightly and looked like she would not wake up even if there was an earthquake. Levi shuddered when he realized that the woman was still wearing her make up. She didn't even take off his jacket.

"Pig."

Levi had the urged to wake the woman up and forced her to cleanse her face and brushe her teeth first before back to sleep. But from the look of her sleeping form, he knew waking her up wouldn't be an easy task and he had no energy left for that, so this time he would let it slide.

He looked at her once again. The woman was sleeping soundly. Still wearing her glasses and snoring. One of her hand was over her head and the other one was on her chest. Her long legs was dangling from the couch and it didn't look comfortable at all but she didn't seem to be bothered. Levi sighed and walked back to his room, get a clean blanket and dropped it on her. She didn't even flinch at all. He lifted an eyebrow at her ability to stay unconscious like that.

Levi knelt next to the couch and looking at her sleeping face. There was a droll on the corner of her open mouth and he rolled his eyes. What an ugly face.

This woman would stay with him for the next three weeks. He, Levi Rivaille would live with a whore he had just met on the street. What a crazy day... He touched her cheek with his index finger and frowned when she didn't woke up. Surprisingly her skin was really soft. Well it wasn't like he had many women to compare since he didn't make it a habit to touch a woman's face.

If only she was this quite when awake.

He sighed.

Sure the next three weeks would be lively.


	4. Chapter 4

When she woke up that morning she felt disoriented. She opened her eyes and looked around. Unfamiliar surrounding welcomed her, was she still dreaming? She found out that she had been sleeping in the sofa but actually even the sofa felt much better than her hard old bed in her old apartment, and the blanket that cover half of her body was so clean and soft. It took several minutes for Zoe to realize where she had been or what had happened the previous night.

She yawned as she sat up. Lazily she stretched her body and frowned, that had been one of the best sleeps she had in the last few years. She was still stretching when the messy haired woman smelt something that made her stomach growled. Now that she realized it, she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday's breakfast.

Zoe left the sofa groggily. Barefoot and hungry, she walked to the dining table where she found some food and note that left by Levi this morning. Frowning, she used a fork to stab the poor sausage before took a bite, she hold the paper in one hand and read his notes for her, wondering how could a neat man like him had such a messy handwriting.

"I have to go to work, I leave you some food for breakfast and my card for you to buy some proper dresses and shoes. Buy decent clothes for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. Wear my coat when you leave the penthouse don't attract to much attention but if you got yourself into trouble with the hotel staff, just tell them you were with Rivaille, they will get the message.

P.S

Don't even think to runaway with my card, you are not that stupid.

P.S.S

Don't mess my room and please take a bath, you stink."

Zoe laughed at his extra notes and realized that he did leave his card on the table. She whistled as she took the card and looked at it. This was her first time touching a credit card. This small thing would allow her to buy anything she wanted. How convenient. She wondered how much she could spend his money for shopping. Sure this was her once in a lifetime chance to try shopping using an unlimited card but after all she had never been really shopping for clothes before. Her clothes and shoes were secondhand stuff, she bought them in flea market or got them from her friends, to actually shop something in a real shop was kind of... How to say it... It was too extravagant for her.

Grinning widely the woman walked to the bathroom. The man was wight, she needed to take a shower. It was not everyday she could enjoy hot water in a luxurious bathroom. She was not really fond with the idea of taking a bath in the morning but the thought of hot water made her thought that she really should take a bath, or maybe a shower this morning before she went shopping.

She giggled as the water touched her slightly tanned skin. The day hadn't even started yet and she already felt like a princess. She wondered what kind of clothes would she bought today. Oh if only Nanaba and Mike knew about this...

Zoe sighed as she turned the watter off. She reached for a towel and dried her body. The thought of her two best friends made her feel self conscious all of sudden. She shouldn't get carried away by the situation. She shouldn't forget that the reason she did this allways for Nanaba. Zoe had sworn to the younger woman that she would earn some money to pay her debt so Nanaba could just focus on her rehabilitation. She was doing it for Nanaba.

Zoe left the hotel with no problem though she did get some judging stare from some people in the lobby. She didn't care though, despite she could hear some people whisper to each other about her. Well, prejudice was not something unfamiliar for her. She would never care.

The smiling woman walked into the first shop she saw as she left the hotel. Despite what Levi had written for her, she didn't bother to wear his coat. Wearing her old dirty skimpy skirt and equally dirty top she walked into a branded store. The woman who worked in that store narrowed her eyes when she saw Zoe walked toward a mannequin, trying to feel the fabric of the dress it wore.

"May I help you?"

Zoe ignored the harsh tone that woman used to welcome her. She grinned and used one finger to scratch her cheek. The older woman looked at her carefully, wondering if it was alright to call the security, after all the woman didn't look like someone who would buy anything from her store. However, Zoe didn't feel intimidated at all. She knew that they would change their attitude once they know she could and would pay for anything she touched.

"I need some clothes, formal ones," Zoe started walking around the store, the woman was following her immediately, "I would have a dinner tonight and a lunch tomorrow, so..." Her eyes were on a classy black dress in the corner. She touched the dress and it felt so nice to her skin. It doesn't look like the most expensive cloth in the store but Zoe didn't care about the price. It looked nice and she liked it. She turned around and smiled widely, "I would take this one."

The woman gritted her teeth, Zoe could see how she clenched bot of her hands, "it is really expensive, miss... I suggest you to check on the price tag first."

Zoe lifted an eye brow but did as suggested. It was much more expensive than what she'd expected but it wasn't like she couldn't buy it. After all she had his card with her.

"Oh yeah, I will still take it," Zoe grinned as she flashed her the card Levi had left her, "I would pay, don't worry."

.

Zoe entered several stores and she was really amused to see how those people changed their treatment to her once they see the card. She bought some clothes and shoes, the expensive ones, those which cost more than what she could earn by selling her body in the street for years. Maybe after the contract ended, she could bring all of these stuffs with her and then sell them. Well first she would show them to Nanaba. She had always told her to buy new shoes to replace her old ones.

Zoe was in her fourth store when one of the attendant recognized the card being Levi's. Zoe tried to explain but no matter how she explained, it would have been much more easier for people to believe that she had stolen the card. The store manager called Levi's office after Zoe insisted that they couldn't call the police before confirming it to Levi first.

Zoe waited impatiently as the manager called the rightful owner of the card. Zoe wished that Levi would explained everything clearly to these people. She tapped her feet, waiting for the manager finished the phone call.

Finally after few minutes, the woman put the phone down and walked toward Zoe, wicked smile on her face. Zoe had a weird feeling that she want to punch her face with her knuckles.

"What did he say?" Zoe asked impatiently, of course Levi would explain to them, right? After all he was the one who told her to go shopping with his card, "He said that he did let me use his card, right?"

The woman looked at Zoe with disgusted look, "Mr. Rivaille said that he would come here now to take care of this himself."

Zoe startled. He didn't need to come, now did he? He just needed to explain it to them. She knew that Levi was a busy man, he had no time for this. So why didn't he just settled it over the phone? Zoe started to get nervous. She waited for the shorter man with so many things in her head.

It took strangely no longer than fifteen minutes for Levi to reach the store. When he entered, the manager herself welcomed her. As usual, he had the same grumpy look on his face. Zoe smiled awkwardly when Levi ignored the store manager and walked toward her. He looked angry, but it wasn't directed at her was it? Wait, he always looked angry so, was he really angry?

"This woman came to buy some of our clothes and when we asked about the payment, she said she would pay with a card, your card, Sir," the manager walked following Levi while trying to explain the situation once again despite all the thing she had told him on the phone before, "We assumed that this woman had stolen your card, that was why we were trying to confirm this with you."

His steel blue eyes met her warm chocolate eyes. She had a feeling that he was ignoring all the things that woman had been saying this whole time.

"Did you see anything you like?"

Zoe was startled by his sudden question but she shook her head, "nope, nothing in this store." She took a glance at the store manager who still had her own attention on his back, "I already bought some clothes in another store though..."

Levi sighed, and looked at his watch, "good, I still have some time before the meeting, let's go grab some lunch."

The store manager's eyes were as big as saucers when Zoe grinned as the shorter man placed his hand on her waist and pulled her to him as they walked toward the door. Right before the walked out of the door Levi stopped and glanced over his back. The manager still had the same expression on her face.

"Oh by the way, thanks for informing me that my girlfriend was here. I was about to pick her up for lunch and wondered where she was." He added with a cold tone which somehow sounded so sexy to Zoe, "and now that you've met my woman, I hope next time you see her coming to your store, you will be nice to her."

.

During the lunch both of them didn't say anything much. Levi didn't even bother to talk about the incident in the fourth store and Zoe was too deep in thought to say anything. Her brain was trying to process his word earlier to the store manager. Girlfriend? Since when had she been his girlfriend? They had just met the other day and the agreement was her being his escort, not a girlfriend. Besides, until last night he didn't look like he was interested in her at all. Why all of suddenly he wanted her to be his girlfriend, well a pretend girlfriend to be exact, but still, he could have told her first.

Zoe tried to remember the situation. Sure the store manager had been rude to her, but telling her that they were dating was too much. She was sure, now that he had said that, it would become a rumor. She didn't know who he was but she could imagine it. People would start gossiping about them. She hadn't had any socialite friends before but she knew that what they love aside from shopping would be gossiping.

Would he be okay once the rumor started spreading?

Zoe looked at Levi who was eating his pasta absentmindedly. No matter how she looked at him, Levi looked too smart to act recklessly. She hadn't known him for too long but it was enough to see that Levi was not a man who would act without thinking about the consequences.

"You know, " Zoe couldn't help herself anymore, "what would you do if those people started to talk about you and I?"

Levi looked disinterested with the question, "you mean them spreading rumor about us?"

She nodded seriously.

"Well," Levi sighed, "let them be. We just needed to play along."

"What play along?" Zoe scowled, "you said that I just needed to be your escort!"

The dark haired man shook his head, "Twice."

Zoe blinked, "huh?"

"I would pay you twice as much, you just need to pretend to be my girlfriend for two months."

If the situation was drawn into a comic book, Zoe's jaw would already on the floor at the moment. That was such a great amount and due to her current situation there was no way she would say no to such an offer. She wouldn't definitely accept this, but the problem is, why. She needed to know why he changed his mind so suddenly. To hire a woman like her to be his pretend girlfriend, Levi must have been frustrated enough. A man like him could have any woman he likes, so why her?

As if he could read her mind, Levi put down the fork and looked at the woman straight in the eyes, "there ARE reasons why I need to hire someone to be my girlfriend but there is NO special reason why I choose you," he took his drink and took a sip, "well none that you need to know anyway."

.

"No, Erwin, you are fucking crazy."

Levi was leaning in his seat. Both of his legs were on the table as he talked seriously with Erwin Smith.

"I am not crazy, Levi Ackerman, what I want to say is..."

"Don't," Levi hissed, Erwin should have known better than to call him with that name he hates so much, "I hate that name, so don't even try."

Erwin chuckled, he had expected such reaction from him. Honestly, he just wanted to tease the younger man, "Well, OK, Levi, I know that you hate your father so much but do this for Elise?"

"Erwin..." Levi hated it whenever his uncle started to play this game. They both knew that if there were anything that is so precious for Levi, it would be his Mom, who was also Erwin's cousin, "don't do this to me."

It had been ten years since Levi left the house after that big fight with his father. He changed his name to his mother's maiden name and started his own business, trying to get away from the Ackerman's shadow. Now he had been successful he had no interest to get back to that damn house where the old man lived.

"Elise has cancer. "

"What?"

"She could be cured, not too late for a chemotherapy but she didn't seem to be too optimistic about it. She kept saying that her time was up."

Levi clenched his hand and gritted his teeth. This was the first time he heard about this. Since when? He had not called his mother for three months but the last time he called her, she sounded so happy... Cancer? Really? His beautiful and kind mother?

"That's why she wanted to see you get married," Erwin explained, " because she felt that her time was up..."

"You know I don't want to get married!" Levi was so tired.

"You don't even have a girlfriend, that was why your mother was so worry about you. That was why she arrange the engagement for you..."

"WHAT ENGAGEMENT?"

"Yours," Erwin chuckled, "Mikasa's parents had already agreed to this."

Levi cringed at the mention of his niece. The last time he met the daughter of his cousin was more than ten years ago. He could faintly remember the chubby dark haired girl who would look at him with her big dark orbs. Yes, he remembered her.

"Erwin, Mikasa is too young for me."

"She is going to be sixteen, not a little girl anymore..."

"He is my niece for God sake!" He wished he could strangle his uncle like now for saying such a stupid thing.

"Not by blood, Mikasa is adopted."

"You are crazy."

Erwin let out another chuckled, finally he told Levi to think about it clearly and that even if he planned to reject the offer he should at least do it by himself, by coming to the family dinner next month. He knew that Levi would definitely object the idea but he needed to make sure that the younger man would think about this matter carefully.

Levi was deep in his thought when suddenly his phone was ringing. When the store manager explained him the situation, suddenly, Levi had a bright idea.

"So, what do you think, Sir? Should we call the police?"

"No need. I would be there in a second. I would settle it myself."

.

.


	5. Chapter 5

If there was a reason why Levi had never wanted to get married, it was because of his parents. As he grew up, Levi had seen how his parents' marriage failed terribly. How his father had some mistresses out there and how his mother would just pretend as if she didn't know about it. Levi had seen how a marriage ruined his mother. He knew that his mother would be happier if she left him, that selfish and arrogant man, but for a reason he would never understand, his mother never left his father. Even after Levi chose to leave that house, his mother chose to stay with that man.

Levi had always thought that love and marriage were overrated. Sex made more sense than that stupid feeling called love. Levi had never believed in love and he also had never planned to get married. Nope. Marriage is stupid.

There had been one time when he really considered getting married. It had been when he met Petra. Petra was a nice girl, she was beautiful and smart and she was not like those other girl who tried to be his lover only for fame and fortune. Also, he knew that the younger girl had some crush with him. Marrying her would be good for him. But in the end he wasn't that heartless. He couldn't marry her, because he knew she loved him. If she wanted his money, he could give it to her, but since what she wanted was his love… It was impossible. He couldn't give her something he didn't have. Levi didn't want to become like his father, marrying someone he didn't love only for convenient. He didn't want to make Petra to become like his mother, married to a man who didn't love her, loving a man who would never love her back.

Levi remembered that when he was young, he had ever asked his mother why she loved a man who always betrayed her. Then she told him that he would never understand until it happened to him. One day, his mother told him, he would meet someone who would change his world, someone who would turn his world upside down. He was twelve at the time and twenty years later he hadn't met that someone his mother talking about.

"So, how do I look?"

Levi startled from his thought. He turned around to see that woman he met yesterday on the street, standing there, in his penthouse's living room, wearing a dress he just bought earlier today, ready for the dinner he was about to take her to.

Zoe didn't know whether his expression meant good or bad. According to what she saw earlier in the mirror, she looked different, not like her usual self but it wasn't too bad. She had never worn a dress, let alone one as expensive as this one, before so she felt a little bit uncomfortable. She chose this dress because it was not too revealing and not too extravagant but still it looked classy and elegant, something which may not suit her taste but she hoped would suit Levi's.

She waited for a minute but there was no response from the man in front of her. She started to worry that she had picked the wrong dress. Maybe she should have chosen the red one instead of the black one?

"Is it bad?"

Levi gulped.

He had never expected that he would become speechless in front of her but he did. He would have never guessed that someone like her would look so good with the right dress and the right make up. Zoe looked beautiful with that black dress, though he would never admit that.

Levi cleared his throat, "why don't you wear high heels?"

Zoe pouted, she kind of wished he would say something about the dress, or her make-up, or her, "Well, I like this shoes and it looks good with this dress… besides, I am not good with heels. Eh, don't tell me that I should wear high heels?"

Levi sighed, "no, don't worry about it. You look…" she looked at him expectantly but he coughed, "..decent. Well don't worry about high heels, but next time you don't have to worry about me you can wear heels when you're with me, I don't mind."

"Really?" Zoe wiggled her brows, "I would be like seventeen centimeters taller than you with heels you know."

"So what?" Levi rolled his eyes as he fixed his necktie, "a man is not about his height but talent. "

Zoe laughed, "and ego, I bet."

The dark haired man didn't say anything. He offered his hand without looking at her.

"Let's go."

Zoe had a wide grin on her face as she took his hand.

He was indeed an interesting man.

.

"There was a call from Hanji."

The blonde haired woman looked at the man with her tired eyes. Her hair was really short and her skin was pale. She was lying in the bed in a hospital room. The woman blinked her eyes, she was too tired to say anything so she waited patiently until he continued his story.

The tall man pulled a wooden chair next to bed and sat down, he smiled half-heartedly as he took her hand in his, "she said she got a job."

She blinked, her voice was hoarse when she tried to talk, "A… job?"

"Yeah," he rubbed his thumb gently over her hand, "She said she couldn't visit you for some time but you don't have to worry about her, she would be back with the money…"

The blonde woman felt the tears started to blind her sight, she bit her lower lip and started to sob. The man sighed as he tried to hold her hands tighter. He knew that she felt bad for her friend. It was not really her fault though, if there were anyone to be blamed for this situation, it was him. If only he hadn't met her… If only he hadn't given her those stuff…

"I am so sorry…" he felt so ashamed. It was all his fault that his loved one had to become like this and his friend had to work so hard to fix the situation for them, "if only I didn't know you… I only I had some money…"

"Mike…"

It was so weak but he knew she was trying to scold him.

"It was not your fault okay?" she smiled tiredly, "you cannot fix the past, just… promise me… You stop… don't do drug anymore, I don't want you to end up like me…"

Mike smiled gently, he pressed his lips on her forehead, "I promise, but first you have to be strong… You have Hange and me supporting you…"

.

Levi was surprised when he saw a familiar blonde man sat together with the older man he was supposed to have a dinner with this evening. He groaned when the said blonde man recognized him and waved his hand friendly toward him. Levi gritted his teeth as he walked toward the table where his soon to be business partner, Dot Pixis, sat with his wife and another man he had never expected to be there, Erwin Smith, his beloved uncle.

"Sorry to make you waiting," Levi said between his gritted teeth, he tried not to sound too angry, "and… I thought tonight would be a private dinner between us?"

Pixis laughed, "oh c'mon, Rivaille, don't be so cold toward your own uncle. Smith had been dumped by his date tonight so let him join us for dinner…"

Dumped my ass… Levi was sure that Erwin just made up that reason so he could spy on him this evening.

"So, you have met my wife, Ursula, before," Pixis motioned to the black haired middle aged woman next to him, the woman smiled politely at hims as Levi shook his hand, "and who is the lovely lady with you? I thought you would take Petra with you tonight…"

Levi coughed, it was harder when Erwin was there, watching him like this, "Well, Petra is on vacation… So, I took her with me… This is Zoe Hange. My woman."

Zoe had been so nervous the whole time and when he called her 'his woman' somehow she blushed. She knew he didn't really mean it but hearing his hoarse voice called her like that made her somehow more nervous than before.

Zoe grinned awkwardly. Luckily, Pixis looked a bit too crazy for formality and Erwin looked so kind that Zoe had a feeling that they wouldn't really mind if she did some mistake tonight. After all, despite how Levi had told her about basic table manner earlier, Zoe tended to made stupid mistakes when she was too nervous.

"I didn't know that you were dating anyone, Rivaille," Pixis admitted as he watched Levi ordered the food from the waiter, "I thought you were not interested, if I recalled it right, you told me that you had no time to date right now…"

Levi sighed, "it was two years ago, Pixis… Actually I had been going out with her for some time now it's just, Zoe is not a social butterfly, she hated party and I hated gossip so yeah, we hadn't exactly go public."

Erwin smiled, "so… what are you doing for living, Ms. Hange?"

Zoe was startled by the sudden question, she laughed nervously. She felt Levi nudged her with his knee under the table, "ah… you can drop the "miss" Mr. Smith," Zoe grinned, "And I am an artist by the way…"

The blonde man nodded, "Ok, I call you… Zoe then? You should call me Erwin. Levi called me Erwin too." He added with a small smile, "an artist, do you paint?"

Zoe nodded, "Yes… Why, do you want to be my model, Erwin?"

Erwin laughed at the sudden offer, "oh, no, I am too old for that…"

"Oh, so you know a lot about paintings too, I guess?" to her surprised, Pixis sounded interested in the topic, "I am a collector, I have a lot of paintings in my house… Say, Ms Hange, who is your favorite artist?"

Levi frowned as he watched her thinking for a moment. He wondered if the shitty glasses really know things about paintings.

"Hmmm… It's a hard question actually," Zoe pouted, "As an artist myself, I understand that every artist have their own respective style, so I can't just choose one, but to say my favorite one… hmm… Maybe Giorgio Ferrera? He wasn't too famous but I think his style is unique and I love most of his works."

Pixis laughed loudly, surprising both Levi and Zoe, he clapped his hand excitedly, "Oh good taste! I like you, Ms. Hange… Well, I am actually a big fan of Ferrera, I have some of his paintings in my house, you can come to see them when you have free time…"

"Really?!"

Pixis looked at Levi from the corner of his eyes, "well, only if your boyfriend agreed, beside, Rivaille, maybe we can talk more about the contract in my house, what do you think about it?"

Levi blinked his eyes. Pixis was not his favorite person in this world, a negotiation with him supposed to be hard. This was the first time thing went so well with him. He looked at Zoe who was winked at him and sighed. It seemed like choosing Zoe as his fake girlfriend was a good idea.

"Sure, I would love too."

.

"It seems like Pixis likes you."

Zoe laughed. She was a bit drunk on their way back to the hotel. She offered Levi to drive the car but he refused because she was too tipsy from the champagne she drank. Tipsy Zoe wasn't much different than sober Zoe. Except for the fact that she was being much more talk-active than usual and it made his head hurt.

"Yeah he is fun to talk with." Zoe giggled, "he is funny."

Levi frowned. He had been doing business with Pixis for years now and he knew that the old man was not funny at all. He was a heartless businessman.

"And your uncle, Erwin, isn't it? He is kinda hot." Zoe licked her lips, "I don't know how you both could be related by blood, he is so macho… So manly… I wonder how he is in bed…"

Levi wrinkled his nose in disgust at the thought of Erwin in bed doing something sexy, "you're drunk."

"I am nooooooot…" Zoe laughed, "I just feel a bit tipsy…"

Levi didn't say anything. He remembered about how Erwin looked at him during the dinner. He knew that Erwin was not really believed that Zoe was his girlfriend. He hadn't said anything though, perhaps because they had no chance to talk in private. Levi knew that Erwin was not stupid. It wasn't easy to fool him.

Levi looked at the woman seated in the navigator seat. To his surprised, Zoe was sleeping when he looked at her. Her mouth was opened and he can see some drool in the corner of her open mouth. She was snoring softly. No matter how he looked at her, she didn't look like the type of women he would date. Erwin must have known about it too but somehow the blonde man seemed to like Zoe. Levi could see it, his uncle was good at pretending to be nice but Levi knew that he wasn't pretending when he was talking with Zoe earlier. He wondered what makes those people like her.

This ugly and noisy woman…

Once again he looked at the snoring woman and sighed.

Yeah. So ugly.

.


	6. Chapter 6

Levi had the worst luck in this world. Not only that he had the shittiest father in this world but he also had the shittiest business partners. Now, he had to added the shittiest uncle in this list. The short man narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. The man who sat in front of him smiled casually, clearly enjoyed his reaction upon seeing him being there. Levi cursed mentally. What is he? A stalker?

When Levi left his penthouse with his pretend girlfriend this afternoon, he had no idea that instead of seeing his business partner, Hannes, and his wife, he found the older man was with his uncle instead. Levi didn't bother to hide his irritation as he sat down his seat. Running a hand trough his side parted hair frustratedly as Erwin politely pulled a seat for Zoe to seat. The gentlemanly action he did made Levi felt even more irritated than ever. What was that old man doing there, flirting with his date right in front of him?

"What are you doing here?" Levi put on his sourest expression. Unlike Pixis, Hannes was not a difficult business partner. Sure, the older man could give him some headache sometimes for being so indecisive and slow in taking action but he had known him for so long that he didn't need to pretend to be polite at him, "are you spying me?"

Erwin pretended to he offended by his words, "how mean, Levi..."

Levi was ready to said something when Hannes ut him off by clearing his throat. Levi turned to the man and looked at him annoyedly, clearly pissed of because he had let Erwin to join their lunch.

"Now, Now, Rivaille, don't be so mean, you bring a fine woman with you and you wouldn't even introduce us?"

Levi scowled, "Right, Hannes, this is my woman, Zoe," he watched Hannes shook her hand and a vein popped out his temple when the man kiss the back of her hand, "Zoe, this old man is Hannes."

"Nice to meet you, Miss... Zoe?"

Zoe smiled nervously, she didn't like it when this man kissed her hand. It felt so weird, "Nice to meet you too, uh Sir."

After they order the food from the waiter, Levi glared at his business partner, "I brought a date today just because I thought you will be with Julia. If I know it would be just you and my uncle, I would just come alone."

Hannes aughed, "Our daughter had fever, Julia can't leave her alone." He smirked, "Besides, it is really rare for you to be with a woman who is not Petra Ral."

"Petra is taking days off," Levi grunted, "but at least she had emailed you the materials, hadn't she?"

"Yes," he nodded, "as usual she did a really good job. She really understand you, that woman, I always wondered why you didn't marry her," he looked at Zoe and gave a wry smile, "well but now I know why..."

Zoe didn't really like this man, he kind of scared her for a reason. She didn't know who was this Petra woman except that she was Levi's some kind of Personal Assistant and somehow she felt like she was being compared with that woman.

Levi sighed boredly, "stop talking crap," he tapped his finger on the table, "so you agreed with the number?"

Hannes exchanged look with Erwin and Levi had a bad feeling about it. He had known Hannes since long time ago and he knew that the man and his uncle could talk just by staring at each other and he hated that. He was curious what they were hiding from him.

"Actually, there was a problem about that," Hannes took a sip of his coffee, he was avoiding Levi's deathly glare, "and Erwin would explain about it."

Ewin lifted an eyebrow at his friend, he sighed when his nephew looked at him dangerously, "well actally, I got nothing to do about this, but Hannes, to put it lightly, begged me, to tell you. That's why I am here right now..."

"What is it?" Levi was not a patient man, he had a bad feeling about it and he needed to know what was it about right now, "just tell me what happened, damn it."

"well, actually, Hannes doesn't own the company anymore, he sold it."

"WHAT?! But the contract..."

"Listen," Hannes laughed nervously, afraid that the younger man would jumped across the table and strangled him anytime, "my company has a lot of debt, I have no choice, I have many people working with me, I cannot let them lose their job...I have little choice. Besides, hey, it does not mean you can't make the contract happen, the company is still exist anyway, you just need to talk with the new owner."

"Who?"

Hannes gulped. He looked at Erwin.

Erwin sighed, he hated to say it, "here is the problem, Nephew, the new owner is Kenny Ackerman, your father."

.

"ARRGHHH!"

Zoe flinched as Levi threw his jacket and kick the coat stand as they were back home. His usually pale and lack of expression face was red and anger wss written all over his face. She didn't really knew what had happened but judging from his reaction, it must have been really bad. Zoe leaned to the wall and folded her arms, watching the man sat down onto the couch angrily. One hand covering his face. Zoe bit her lower lip, wondering if it was okay for her to say anything.

"Fuck..." Levi muttered frustratedly, "that bastard... He did it just to piss me off..."

Zoe walked toward the couch slowly, "your old man?"

Levi snorted, he almost forgot about her, "he wanted me to come back home."

Zoe didn't have to know the whole story but he could see that the man didn't have the best relationship with his father. She didn't want to interfere, but she was curious, "is it really bad?"

Levi only grunted.

Zoe tried again, she pushed her glasses up her nose nervously, "may I sit down?"

Another grunt, this made the woman pouted. The man still hadn't looked at her so she wasn't really sure whether the grunt meant to be yes or no, she sat down anyway.

Zoe watched the man from her position. She hated to admit it, but man was actually really good looking. From her position right now, she could see how perfect his nose was, unlike hers. His skin was also so fair that it was almost transparent, she wondered if this man was actually a vampire. Despite his age, he also looked very young, which was not bad in her opinion.

She had just met him few days ago. A simple meeting which led her into a complicated matter. At first she was just driving him to his hotel, then he became her escort, and now she was his pretend girlfriend. A man like him, handsome and rich, shouldn't need to pay a prostitute to be his escort, never the less, a pretend girlfriend.

What's he thinking?

Zoe chewed her bottom lip. She couldn't understand this man. She knew nothing about him except his name and that he was damn rich, how could she get involved in his personal matter? She looked at the skirt she was wearing. She had dressed up for the lunch but it turned into disaster, and it wasn't even her fault. She licked her abused lower lip, she wondered what she could do now for him. He payed her to be his pretend girlfriend, but what did he expect her to do as a pretend girlfriend? Zoe was a prostitute with no degree, only little thing she could do...

"Hey," Zoe poked his cheek, he swatted her hand away. She looked at him amusedly and poked him again. This time before he could say anything, she added, "wanna sleep with me?"

"What?! NO!" he looked at her irritatedly, "I don't sleep with a whore!"

Zoe tsk-ed and looked atLevi boredly, "I didn't talk about sex, little man, I talk about cuddle..."

"Who do you call little?! You shitty whore!" Levi stood up, his face was red. He pointed at her face and looked disgusted as he opened his mouth, "Listen, I don't cuddle, and once again, I would NEVER sleep with you! Shitty glasses!"

With that he turned his back and left her. Zoe watched the small man entered his bed room and slammed the door angrily. Strangely, despite he said those angry words toward her, Zoe didn't feel hatred from the man. She chuckled as she laid down on the couch. That small man is really interesting.

.

"I don't know what are you scheming, Ackerman, but your son is really pissed off."

Erwin looked at the skinny business man took a sip of his whiskey with an amused look on his face. With one look, nobody would have guessed that this man was related to Levi but once you knew him better, you would see, they were really father and son. Kenny put his now empty glasses on the table. It was a rare occasion for him to drink with his wife's cousin. They didn't get along well. Kenny knew that this man used to had some feeling for his wife. A puppy love, since Elise is ten years older than him.

"I don't scheme anything," Kenny chuckled. He poured himself another glass.

"Really," Erwin said calmly, "I thought you plan to crush him."

Kenny laughed, "him? Levi? Oh no... Why would I do that to my own son? He is my only son, you know. Hell, he is my only heir. I sleep around and have many mistress but I don't have any other kid out there."

Erwin knew that he might have some kid with his mistress, Kenny just wouldn't acknowledge them. He was just cruel like that. Erwin would never understand why his beloved cousin loved this man. Elise had been married with this man ever since the first time Erwin met Elise twenty years ago. Elise married Kenny when she was still sixteen, her parents had some debt to the man, so they practically sold their own daughter. Kenny seemed to like Elise enough to keep her as his wife for more than thirty years. Or maybe the man just think that a divorce would be too much work for him. Besides why would he divorce a wife who was completely devoted to him and closed her eyes for every affair he had done?

"Elise misses him," Kenny looked bored, "that good for nothing son of mine, I wonder until when he would act so reckless. He thinks of me, his own father, as an enemy." He chuckled, "I didn't plan to crush him, Smith, actually, I even planned to make him as my single heir. He would get all of my wealth once I die, which still very long time to go though, as long as he did as what I wanted him to do."

"For example for him to marry Mikasa?"

Kenny grinned, "Mikasa is a good girl. She is beautiful. True she was adopted but she acted like the real Ackerman. She is braver than her good for nothing father."

"She is still fifteen," Erwin frowned. He had met Mikasa, she was a beautiful girl and for a reason she reminded him of Levi in his teenage. Mikasa was so much alike with his nephew that he couldn't imagine them together in a romantic way.

"Elise was sixteen when we got married, seventeen when Levi was born. Besides it wasn't like they have to get married right now. My stupid brother insisted that Mikasa had to graduate from high school first. I don't mind. They can just engage first."

Erwin poured himself another whiskey without saying anything.

"Besides it would make Elise feel better, maybe she would change her mind about chemotherapy if Levi accepted this engagement. She would want to be around when her first grandchild is born." Kenny let out a sigh.

Erwin would never understand. Sometime it looked like he really cared about his wife, it looked to sincere for him to wonder if he was just pretending. But if he really cared about Elise why did he took her love for him for granted? Elise was a beautiful and caring woman, Erwin would not know what was not good enough about her that made Kenny still took more mistresses behind her back.

"I met Levi the other day."

Kenny rolled his steel blue eyes, "sure you do. You meet him more often than I, his father, could. One would start to wonder if you were his real father instead of me. I would too, if I didn't knew better."

Erwin narrowed his eyes, "He has a girlfriend. A girlfriend, not a mere woman he is sleeping with. He actually took her to the dinner with his business partners. She is a really fascinating woman."

"You don't mean Petra Ral? As far as I know that woman has gotten married, hasn't she?"

Erwin shook his head, "no, not Petra. They were never in that kind of relationship."

"But he slept with her, even after her marriage."

Erwin paused, "how do you know about it?"

Kenny shrugged, "I have my own sources. "

Erwin sighed, "their relationship isn't like that. They are best friend, if you could call it that. However, the woman Levi dated right now is nothing like Petra."

"She might just sleep with him for money," Kenny spat, "there are many women like that."

"Do you think Levi would date a woman like that?"

He shrugged once again, "That kid could be naive sometime."

Erwin didn't say anything. It was clear for him that Kenny would not give up his idea to make Levi engaged to Mikasa. It was going to be difficult. Erwin just wanted his nephew to be happy. He had planned it to make Petra left him for vacation so he would start open his eyes on his surrounding. Get a girlfriend and starter living livelier. It was going to be difficult but he wasn't going to give up yet. He still got a ray of hope in the name of Zoe Hange.

.


	7. Chapter 7

When he woke up that morning he had never expected someone to be sleeping next to him. No, she wasn't exactly "next" to him, she was actually on top of him. It took time for him to realize what was actually going on as his feet tangled with her long ones, but when he finally realized who it was in his bed, he was paler than the wall. He quickly tried to recall what had been going on last night. Sure yesterday was one of the worst day ever but to think that he would actually sleep with a prostitute...? Well that couldn't be true. Right?

No. Levi didn't dare to move. He wasn't sure what had happened last night and he wasn't ready to face the woman right now. He needed to remember first what had happened actually. He knew that he would not have sex with the woman, he wasn't stupid to sleep with someone like her. But how she ended up in his bed? He narrowed his eyes as he awkwardly checked their body. They were still wearing clothes, good, it meant they didn't have sex. But still, it didn't mean that nothing had happened at all, did it? Why on earth this woman ended up in his bed? He still remembered that last night the crazy bitch had offered him to sleep together and he had turned down the offer the second she mentioned it. So...

Levi cursed silently when the woman stirred. This was gonna be bad. He still hadn't remember of what had happened last night!

The woman sighed as she snuggled closer to the man, eyes still closed but he was sure she was awake already, maybe she was trying to go back to sleep but he would not let her.

Levi wondered what he would say to the woman when the said woman giggled sleepily, her warm breath tickle his neck as she nuzzled her nose to his neck and inhaled. The man blushed at the weird feeling.

"Mm, you smell really good."

The business man tsk-ed. He was glad she was not looking at his face right now because as much as he wished he wasn't, he knew he was blushing. He felt awkward with their current position but at the same time he didn't want to pull away, or to pushed her away.

"What the fuck are you doing in my bed?" Levi grunted, he still had no idea what had been going on.

"Uhm," she moved even closer to him, "shut up, shorty... I am trying to sleep here."

Apparently it was the wrong thing to say because seconds later, the brunette ended up on the carpeted floor of his bed room, landed on her butt with a thump. It was enough to finally wake her up. When she sat up and groaned, the grumpy man had also sat up on his bed, folding his hands on his chest and looked at her with narrowed eyes. He didn't need to say anything for her to understand his look. It was clear that he was asking her, how she ended up in her bed.

Well that wasn't a complicated story.

Zoe sighed, she looked at Levi from her spot on the carpeted floor, "Well, you were sleep-talking." She rolled her eyes when Levi looked at her as if he didn't believe her story at all. She didn't make it up, she was only telling the truth, "I am not lying! I heard you growling and moaning, I thought you had an heart attack in your sleep or something so I went to check you up. You were sweating and growling, a nightmare obviously, I tried to get closer to listen to what you were saying in your sleep," she shrugged, Zoe didn't care if he believed her or not, "I think I got too close because you grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the bed. After that you stopped sleep talking and sleep tightly but you would not let me go."

If he tried to recall it, he did have a nightmare last night and something common for him. He did remember faintly though that the nightmare didn't last whole night last night, replaced by another dream, a pleasant one though he couldn't recall.

Zoe sighed, "you maybe a small man but you are really strong. I cannot get away from you."

Levi's face became hot but he hoped it didn't turn red. He cursed as he left the bed, ignoring the urge to make the bed first.

"Where are you going?"

Levi stopped in front of his private shower the transparent glass wouldn't give him any privacy with the woman in his room. Levi folded his arms and he lifted an eyebrow, looking at the woman with irritated look.

"Can I have some privacy please?"

.

As he rinsed the soap from his body, Levi tried to recall his schedule today. It was weird, because after few days he started to get used recalling his own schedule. Normally it was Petra's job to remind him of his schedule of the day. Now that he thought about it, Petra had worked so hard for him. She kind of deserved the so called vacation. He still pissed off because she took a vacation without telling him first though.

Petra had been an awesome assistant for him. There were times where he considered to ask her on a date, or even to marry her, but he liked her too much that he didn't want to make her trapped in a loveless marriage just like what happened to his mother. Sure, Petra was a nice woman, she was attractive and smart, and he was pretty sure that there were times where she obviously had a not so little crush on him. He was not sexually attracted to her though, despite all the crazy rumors around, he had never slept with the beautiful woman. There were that one kiss though, that was before she got married to her husband. They were drunk and she confessed to him. He pretended to not remember anything from that night though, it was the best thing to do to save her from embarrassment and both of them from awkward situation.

Levi was not a virgin but he was not a kind of guy who sleeps around too. He was not interested in having a serious relationship, he had no time for all the shit, but he also wasn't a fan of a one night stand too. Sure there were times when he slept with a girl he was sexually attracted but he never spent the night with them. He would go out for a dinner with the girl, sometime bought them some gifts, checked in a nice hotel, enjoyed some good wine, fucked, and he left after that with no promise of future date. Rude as he was, Levi just didn't trust those women to spend the night with him, and he had reasons for that.

First, Levi didn't want to make those women think that there was anything special between them. No, he didn't want them to get the wrong idea. He had met too many gold diggers and he had no plan to let them had their claw on him. He just didn't trust those women. Second, he didn't want anyone to see him having those nightmares...

Those nightmares had started to haunted him since he was thirteen. It was vague, he couldn't remember what was it about or how it started but he would toss around in his bed at night, sometime screaming and woke up with sweat all over his body. That was one of the reason why he became such a workaholic, he would work all night, reading through all document and report until he became too tired to dream any thing. It worked well, he slept only two or three hours every night but at least no nightmare bothering him. It was also the reason the dark circle under his eyes.

There were so many things happened this week that he had almost forgot about the nightmare he used to have but last night, though he didn't remember about it, apparently it came back. He had a good guess though, that hi conversation with his uncle at the dinner had triggered the nightmare back again. To make it worse, that shitty woman had seen him in such state.

Levi groaned ad he let the warm water hit his naked back. Normally he would never be able to sleep if there were someone else in his bed. He was a light sleeper and he couldn't sleep when there was someone in his room. He would fuck those girls but he wuld never spend the night with them. Therefore he never brought them to his place, so he could leave after they finished.

He hated to admit it but when he woke up this morning, it did feel good to have her in his arms. He faintly remember the nightmare subsided into something warm and fuzzy, something he didn't normally feel. He wondered if it was all because he had Zoe in his arm.

It was a crazy idea but maybe, just maybe, he could try it once more with her tonight.

.

Zoe looked at her shoes and sighed. The shoes were old and cheap, they were not the best shoes in town, definitely, but she had worn those shoes for years. She had done her best to take care of the shoes and she had lost count how many times had she tried to fix the shoes, but apparently, now it was the time to say good bye to the shoes. The heels had been so worn out that it was uneven and to put it nicely, the shoes had reached its age, she needed to throw it away.

She pouted though, she had no heart to throw them away. She had new shoes, bought three days ago with Levi's black card, and the new shoes were so nice but still...

"I hope you would not eat those. It's disgusting."

The prostitute glared at the shorter man who was enjoying his breakfast while reading his newspaper. He looked so fresh this morning with half dried hair and smelt like nice expensive soap.

"Why would I eat my shoes?" Zoe rolled her eyes but he didn't bother to look at her which frustrated her even more. After he came out of his room this morning after took a shower, he put his usual poker face. She wondered if he were still angry about what had happened earlier this morning.

"Because you look hungry. It wouldn't surprise me if you really ate the shoes though..." Levi turned another page of his newspaper, still not looking at her, "there are foods on the table, but I wouldn't stop you if you preferred eating the shoes." He added with a lower tone, "do it somewhere else though. It is disgusting to see."

"You don't even look at me," Zoe put the shoes on the floor, she looked at the food curiously, "I really could eat?"

This time Levi sighed and finally looked up from his newspaper, "finish your breakfast and get changed into something proper we will go out today."

Zoe grinned. Normally she would wake up when Levi had gone to work or were ready to go, so she never ate together at the table with him in the house. She always had an image that someone like Levi would not want to eat at the same table with her if they didn't have too. But then again despite his foul mouth, Levi had always treated her nicer than anybody who had paid for her service. She knew he often called her names but he never treated her like a whore, and it somehow touched her.

"I thought we don't have any lunch or dinner with your client today?" Zoe tried to remember the schedule he gave her few days ago, the gala dinner would be in two days and the charity ball would be the day after.

"Yeah, it isn't business meeting." Levi turned another page, "We will not meet anyone today."

Zoe swallowed the toast, and grinned, "so it was like a date?"

Levi looked at the woman with a bored look, "you wish. We will go shopping. You need more clothes for the upcoming events we need to attend. I need to make sure you bought proper dresses, so I would go with you."

The woman wiggled her brows, she loved to tease the shorter guy, he was so fun to tease, "so it really is a date."

The man groaned, "whatever you want to call it, shitty glasses. Now shut your mouth, finish your food and get ready."

.

Zoe watched the business man from the corner of her eyes as he drove his expensive car on the busy road. There were so many things she wanted to know about this man but she was not that stupid, she knew it was not wise to ask him those questions she kept for him. It wasn't her business and she was not usually care about stuff like this, but still, there were something about Levi which made her can help wondering.

Like, for example, what he was thinking exactly when he chose her, a street prostitute, to be his fake girlfriend. Zoe could tell by looking, he was not stupid, he was rich and despite the scowl he was actually quite good looking. He did tell her that he didn't want to let those gold diggers think they had chance with him, but still... She was a prostitute for God sake.

Zoe finally took her eyes off Levi and looked at the street as he drove them to the shopping district in the other side of the town. Last night, she was surprised to see him like that. Haunted by a nightmare and pulled her into a tight embrace as if his life was depending on her. She let out a small chuckle, she would not say it out loud but he looked kind of cute last night.

"What are you laughing at, shitty glasses?"

Zoe didn't even flinch at the nickname, after few days she had been use with him calling her names. She didn't mind because she knew he didn't mean to insult her, well not seriously. Besides, he let her calling him names too, though his scowl would go deeper whenever she mentioned his height.

"Nothing," Zoe chuckled, "I just wondered if you knew the way to the shopping district. No offense but you're horrible at direction."

Levi tsk-ed but said nothing. His eyes were focus on the street. He had told Gunther to install new GPS system on his car but it didn't help much. But to drive to the shopping district he would not need the damn GPS, he knew the direction very well.

Actually Levi hates shopping. He usually asked Petra to do everything, including his shopping. He did go by himself on few occasion though but this was the first time he would go with a woman. Well, and that was exactly the plan. He got the idea when he took a shower this morning. If he were caught shopping with a woman, there would be rumors, and that would reach his father eventually. That was why he chose to shop in the busy shopping district in the other part of the town instead of those shops near the hotels. He could just give his card to Zoe and let her go buying those stuffs by herself but he couldn't let this chance slipped off his hand.

Well, maybe Erwin had broken the news to his parents but it didn't hurt to make it more believable. He hoped that by this way, his parents would forget about the engagement. Levi knew he did the right thing by not agree to get engaged with his adopted cousin. Mikasa was too young for him and he barely knew her. Besides, he didn't want to get married. Especially not an arranged marriage.

Levi parked his car smoothly in front of the first shop they were going to shop at. He didn't open the door for Zoe but the woman didn't mind at all. If he had to be honest, one think he kind of like from the woman was that she was not demanding. She never complained about his colorful choice of words and sometime rude behavior, she actually knew how to communicate with him, something he couldn't find in his previous dates. Well maybe it was because he had never date a prostitute before, but still, there was something different about Zoe that he couldn't find in the other girls he met, not even in Petra.

He was right. As they stepped into the store, all the eyes were on them. He could see a girl, a super model actually, whom he used to date for few weeks was looking at them like seeing a ghost. Levi just smirk anyway and put her hand casually in Zoe's surprisingly tiny waist. A shop attendant hurried to the pretend couple with a professional smile on her lips. Welcoming the man and his girlfriend.

"She needs some nice dresses for a formal dinner and a ball. Also some dress for business lunch," Levi said fatly, "maybe green would look good on her, or gold."

The woman smiled nervously, Levi had come to their store few times with few different girls in the past but usually he would just say nothing, not even bother to look up from the magazine he would read while wait.

Zoe looked at Levi before she went with the shop attendant who treated her much more nicer than any shop attendant she had ever met. Of course the face that she was with Levi should have been the factor.

"How many dresses again do I need to get?" She just wanted to make sure, she knew he had the money but it couldn't be hurt to ask first. After all she had seen how expensive stuff in this kind of store could be.

Levi lifted his thin brow, "just get any dress you like. Make sure it looks good on you."

Zoe grinned and put her fist on her left chess to salute him, "aye, Captain!"

The man just rolled his eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

"You know what funny?"

He lifted his eyebrow.

"The other day when I went shopping alone, those people from the store treat me badly as if I was some kind of germs... But today when I come here with you, they are so nice to me..." as if to show him her point, Zoe waved a slice of pizza the shop attendant had ordered for them. Right now both of them sat on the sofa, waiting for the shop attendants to come back with the stuff she had picked.

They bought many dresses, some of them were even personally picked by the short grumpy guy. Zoe would have never dream that one day she would be able to have any branded stuff but here she was, not one or two but dozen of stuffs for her. She wondered if she really could keep these stuff after their contract over. She really wanted to show Nanaba all of these stuffs, she would be happy.

Levi snorted, he put down his black tea, "these shops were never nice to people, they are nice to credit cards."

Zoe was about to say something about that statement when the shop managers come to them with the widest smile Zoe ever seen on a human face. Levi didn't seem to give a damn until the man stopped in front of them and slightly bow politely.

"Mr. Rivaille, is there anything else you want to buy from us?"

Levi sighed, he folded his arms and looked at the man, looked bored like usual, "you shouldn't ask me. We're here for her, not me. You should ask her."

Realizing his mistake, the man quickly turned to Zoe and once again smiled widely, "oh, of course! miss, is there anything else we can help you with?"

It felt good to be treated politely once in a while by people who normally would look down on you. The woman grinned and pointed at that man's cravat, "I think it would look good on Levi..."

Levi didn't say anything but as he took another sip from his cup, Zoe could swear that she saw a faint smirk upon his thin lips.

They left the stuffs in the car as they walked to another shop, Zoe was not so sure if she were allowed to touch Levi but when their pinky fingers touch each other and he didn't seem to mind it, Zoe grinned and hugged his arm, a little awkward thanks to ten centimeters height difference, but neither of them seemed to care.

Zoe couldn't help but to grin ear to ear when she felt many eyes on them. Hell yeah, those ladies must have been jealous seeing someone like her with someone like him. She dressed nicely, walking hand in hand with a man who also dressed nicely, something which didn't usually happened to her. Normally when she was seen with a man, it was either Mike or the men who tried to use her service and none of those men nor her dressed properly. She had been used with people looking at her as if they were judging her, but today, the reason of those people looking at her was entirely different.

"So where are we going now?"

They had just left another store when Zoe asked the question. Actually she didn't mind wherever he took her, just kept walking and holding hand like this was not bad, she kind of like it.

"I think you got enough dressed and shoes for today," Levi frowned, he looked at his expensive watch, "it's time for lunch, I know a nice restaurant around here, we just..."

"Oh, I know a place!"

Levi looked at the woman and frowned, "a restaurant?"

Zoe grinned, "I guarantee you will love the food!"

.

When he let the shitty glasses to drag him somewhere to have lunch, Levi should have known it must be not some kind of famous restaurant like the ones he used to visit. He didn't have any idea what makes him let her drag him anywhere she please. Here they were, sitting on the grass at a park, with hotdogs and canned juice for lunch.

"This is your idea of having lunch?" Levi frowned as he looked at the hotdog in his hand. He would not admit it but he was a picky eater. He had never bought any street food before. Imagine the germs and lack of hygiene... no he didn't want to think about it.

"Yeah," Zoe grinned at him before started eating her lunch, "I hogh hu uff affifff!"

The raven haired CEO groaned, "don't talk with your mouth full!"

Levi would never admit it but actually sitting on the grass and eating this unhealthy lunch once in a while wasn't too bad. He actually didn't hate the taste of their lunch and the feeling when his bare hand touched the grass was also kind of nice. He wouldn't make it a habit but doing it for a change might be not a bad idea.

Suddenly a random thought bothered the man. He didn't know why but when he thought about Zoe doing this with her clients his tummy started feeling weird. He disliked the idea of Zoe sitting here, having this unhealthy lunch with another man... The rational part of him telling me that it was stupid to feel this way, Zoe was a prostitute, whatever shit she did with her clients was none of Levi's business but the other part of him, the irrational one, told him to ask her. He needed to know and he didn't even know why he wanted to know.

As if she could read his mind, Zoe grinned at the man after she finished her lunch, "you know what, this is the first time I have lunch with someone in this place. Well to be honest it has been a while since I had lunch with anyone at all!"

Levi furrowed his brows, trying as best as he could to pretend as if he wasn't interested with the topic she brought up, "so?"

Zoe chuckled "uwaaaah your response is so cold!" Levi glared at her but she just laughed it off, "well, first of all, I rarely had lunch... I work at night you see, so during the noon, I sleep," the woman shrugged, "besides, I consider it too intimate, you know, having lunch, or dinner, with my client... that's not professional..."

Levi snorted, "define professional."

The taller woman tapped her chin with her long index finger, she pouted her lips as she was thinking about how to explain to the man, "Well, I don't kiss my clients, no cuddling either... You know, I don't want any unnecessary feeling when I am in this business. I can't afford to feel more than what I should..."

For a moment, Levi looked at the woman who was now laying down on the grass, both hands as her pillow and eyes closed. For a reason he couldn't understand, she didn't look as ugly as he always thought she was. Well, she was never ugly... sure she wasn't exceptionally beautiful but to call her ugly was just... Levi slapped his head mentally. What was he even thinking?!

"But you have lunch with me today."

Levi never meant to say it out loud but when he realized it, he had already said it. He cursed mentally. What was wrong with him today?

Still closing her eyes, Zoe laughed, "Not that you mentioned it, you right..." she opened her eyes and looked into his ice blue eyes and smiled teasingly, "I wonder why..."

Thanks God the woman closed her eyes as soon as she said it so Levi had time to hide her blush.

.

A woman sat alone in a lovely rocking chair near a huge window with wooden frame. Her face was pale and looked sad but if you looked at her for more than few second, despite her frail and weak body, you would see that she was indeed a beautiful woman. The woman was looking at her garden of roses out of the window, longing to get out of the house to tend her roses. There were so many things in her mind and she wished she could do a little gardening as it would ease her mind even though just a bit.

She took a deep breathe. Her husband had told her to stay inside, said husband was not home at the moment but being a good wife as she was, the woman just obeyed it. She knew it was for her best.

"You looked tired, Elise, shouldn't you rest in your bed?"

The woman, Elise turned her head to see a tall man, more than few years younger than she was and dressed in an expensive looking tailored suit. The blond man smiled gently as she approached the woman.

Elised returned the smile, "Erwin... where have you been? These past few days I haven't heard from you..." he pulled a chair nearby and sat in front of her, "are you so busy that you have no time to visit me?"

The man chuckled, "Well, kind of. But I came here today with a good news so I hope it would make up for the few days I didn't contact you."

The woman looked confused, "good news?"

She hadn't heard any good news lately. Her husband was busy, her son was still being a stone head kid and refused to come home and then her cousin seemed to be keeping secret from her... A good news would be great.

The raven haired woman looked at the man expectantly, "is it about my son?"

Erwin smiled, "Well, it seemed like what people talk about a mother's instinct is true..."

Elise giggled, she shook her head gently, "well it's been so long since I heard from him. So, what's the good news?" She looked at Erwin hopefully, "is he going to move back in?"

The tall businessman shook his head, "unfortunately no, but this is better than Levi moving back here, I think..."

Elise tried not to put her hopes too high, "what is it?"

"Well... it seems like, your only son had a fiancee already."

.

Zoe found it was a bit scary that she was getting used with all of these galas and banquets. She was afraid that she would be too comfortable living this life style that it would be hard when the time had come for her to say goodbye to all of these. When she had to say goodbye to that neat-freak.

She would never told him this, but after a while, she started to change her mind about the shorter man. At first, she thought that he was just like those rich men who would treat people who weren't as rich as them like some kind of dirt. It surprised her that despite her arrogant aura, Levi was actually a caring person. He cared about his subordinates. Levi was different from those men she knew. He never touched her inappropriately. Maybe it because she wasn't his type of woman, but despite how he referred to her with so many shitty nicknames, he had been nice to her. Of course he might bite her head off if she told him directly about how she thought he was being nice to her. It surprised her how he didn't mind to prepare dinner for her, apparently he was a good cook. No man had ever cooked for her before.

It was Sunday morning when Zoe and Levi were having breakfast a bit late than usual. It was a lazy day, no argue for that, where they had no plan all day. Levi, miraculously, had nothing to do that day since he had finished his work last Friday. So, both of them woke up late this morning, thus late breakfast.

Zoe bit her turkey bacon when Levi started reading the morning newspaper. It was still amazing to her how comfortable this place, with kitchen and all, that she sometimes forgot that it was a hotel.

"We have no lunch today?"

"No."

He didn't looked up from the newspaper.

Zoe try again.

"No party?"

The shorter man's brow twitched a little but his expression didn't change much.

"No dinner, no gala, nothing. Today is my day off."

Zoe bit her lower lips, as if thinking about something. Realizing her silence, Levi sighed as he finally looked up from the newspaper.

"What's it?"

Zoe shook her head, "nothing important, just thinking, maybe if you don't have any schedule today which needs me to escort you, maybe I can go out for a little while? There is some place I need to go."

The man narrowed his eyes, "And why should I let you?"

Zoe groaned, "Oh c'mon!"

Levi tsk-ed as he looked at his watch. Well he didn't have anything to do today anyway. He knew it was stupid but suddenly an idea came in his mind. He might regret it letter because he knew this wasn't a good idea.

Damn it.

"Get ready, I will take you wherever you want today."


	9. Chapter 9

It was awkward. 

Well, Zoe was happy because she finally could see her best friend after so long—also because she looked much better than the last time she saw her—and because Levi didn’t seem to mind driving her to the hospital but it didn’t change the fact that being in the same room with her friends and her fake boyfriend was kind of nerve wrecking. She was not sure how to explain the situation to each of them. Thankfully Nanaba just greeted her with a warm smile and Levi didn’t ask anything. Mike looked amused though and he kept sending Zoe a teasing look.

“Well, Levi, this is my friends, Nanaba and Mike,” Zoe cleared her throat before she turned to her friends and gestured at the dark haired man, “umm, guys, this is Levi Rivaille, my...” she looked at Levi as if asking for help but the guy didn’t say anything, she sighed, “well, you can say, he is my employer.”

Nanaba smiled gently as she looked at the man her friend brought to the hospital, “hello, nice to meet you, Levi.”

Levi nodded, “Nice to meet you too,” he turned to Zoe and added, “I can wait outside so you can catch up.”

Hange was thankful with that because there were things she needed to discuss with Nanaba and Mike and it would be hard to discuss about something when the person she was about to discuss about was there in the same room with them, “Thank you, umm, you can get hot chocolate or tea in the first floor...”

The man left the room and after the door was once again closed, Nanaba started to grinned and Zoe’s face slowly turned red.

“So, you got yourself a rich man...”

Zoe rolled her eyes, she knew Mike would definitely said that. It wasn’t hard to tell Levi’s social status just by looking at him, “it is profesional, anything happens between us is not personal.”

“So,” Nanaba was still grinning eat to ear, “did you kiss him?”

Zoe groaned when her friends started to laughed. Both Mike and Nanaba knew that Zoe didn’t kiss her clients. It was too personal, that was what Zoe believed, her principle was to never mixed your feeling with your job.

“I didn’t even sleep with him...” then she corrected herself, “I mean, I did sleep in his bed, these past few days, but we didn’t do that... you know,” she hissed, as if worried if Levi might hear them, “we didn’t have sex.”

Mike laughed loudly, “You gotta be kidding me!”

His girlfriend pinched his side to remind him that Levi could hear him but she chuckled herself, “wow, that’s new...”

Zoe pouted as she pulled a chair and sat down next to bed, “c’mon... do you think someone like him would sleep with a whore like me?”

Mike shrugged, “I don’t know, a man like him wouldn’t hire a whore for nothing... I mean, there must be a lot of women around him why must he pay to get anything from you?”

Zoe bit her lower lip, “well, it was a long story, but first, how’re you, Nana?”

Her friend smiled, “I am doing well, thank you, Zoe. I am taking medication seriously right now, I hope I can leave the hospital as soon as possible and back to work...”

Zoe shook her head, “nah, don’t think about work right now, just focus on your rehabilitation. I would take care of the medicine and everything you don’t have to worry. Which remind me, by the way...” Zoe took out a white envelope from her purse, “could you give this to Nile? Maybe it’s not enough but as soon as I got my payment from Levi I would give him the rest of the money.”

“Zoe,” Nanaba frowned, “I couldn’t let you do this...”

“Oh you would,” Zoe laughed, “don’t worry it is easy money this time, so you don’t have to feel sorry for me.”

Mike acceped the enveloped and narrowed his eyes, “by the way, how long are you going to stay in his place?”

Zoe shrugged, “I am not really sure but he wouldn’t stay for too long in this town so, I guess my job would be done by then... But, I won’t be able to go home for a while, so Mike, could you check on that kid while I am not home?” Zoe gave him another envelope, “give this to him and make sure he didn’t get into trouble. I knew he stayed with Grandpa Artlet but just in case, just look out for him. I don’t want him to hang out with wrong people...”

Mike sighed, “maybe you should see him yourself, he missed you, you know... you never left home for this long before.”

This time she shook her head, “I missed him too and I would love to see him but I couldn’t go home yet... I need to finished this job first. After that I can go home and took him on vacation maybe, or buy that really nice shoes he had always wanted.” Zoe smiled sadly as she looked at her hand on her lap, “He would understand my reason, wouldn’t he?”

The bearded man pat her head and smiled, “Of course he would! You worked so hard for us, Zoe... Sometime I think you were just too selfless...”

Zoe laughed at that, “I am not that selfless, Mike!”

“But you are!” Nanaba said as she offered her an assuring smile, “Thank you Zoe, I promise I would do my best to get better, I couldn’t do much but next time I saw him I will definitely tell him that you miss him...”

.

 

Petra looked at her laptop screen, reading the email she got this morning. Her husband was in the shower at the moment and the man was always spending half an hour or more in the shower so she had time to check on her job during that time. He had become very needy since they started the vacation so it was hard for Petra to check on her work. She knew that she supposed to enjoy the vacation and forget about the works she had to do but she just couldn’t let Levi handle everything alone. Besides, she wouldn’t feel good if she didn’t do anything at all.

She was about to turn the laptop off when she got an email from Erwin. She remembered that her husband had told her to turn her phone off since two days ago so maybe Erwin couldn’t reach her. The fact that he sent an email could only mean that this must be important. The subject was saying “About Levi” and it was enough to make the auburn haired woman felt worried about her boss. 

‘Sorry if I disturbed you with this email, I tried to contact you but I couldn’t reach you, so I decided to send you an email.

It is about Levi actually. It seemed like he had a girlfriend. I know, I know, he never talked about the woman before but when I met the woman, I had a feeling why he never talked about her before. Her Name is Zoe Hange, she is a nice woman, different than the girls Levi used to date but I can see why he chose her.

It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Levi, or her in this case, I just want to be safe. So, can you do me a favor? Could you do a background check for this woman? Or if you know anything about her and Levi relationship, please tell me. Levi told me they’ve been dating for a while now, so maybe you know about something.

I will wait for your reply.

Sincerely,

Erwin.’

Petra almost fell from the bed after she read the email. He got to be kidding... She had just been away for a week or so and her boss had already gotten himself a girlfriend? That is so hard to believe. Well, it was part of their plan actually for her to take a vacation so Levi could socialize more but she didn’t actually think it would be this fast.

“They had been dating for a while, eh?” Petra rubbed her chin as she read the mail once again, “Zoe... Hange?”  
Good. Now she had more work to do.

.

“Maybe we should think over about the engagement,” Elise was laying on her bed, today her husband took a day off and spend the day with her, something which happened only once in a blue moon. It had been so long since the last time they spend time together like this where he sat next to her in her bed while reading the news paper and she was just laying there, doing nothing but enjoying the presence of the man she loved.

The man frowned at the suggestion his wife made just now, “why?” he asked as he put down the newspaper, “you seemed to be quite happy when you heard about the plan for the first time, why changing your mind so suddenly? You told me that you like Mikasa.”

“I do,” Elise smiled at her husband, “Mikasa is a really good kid, and even though the age gap was kind of big, I think she would make a good partner for our son... But the other day Erwin came and told me that Levi is seeing someone right now and he was serious with the woman...” 

Kenny rolled his eyes, of course, he should have guessed, Erwin would tell Elise about this. He wasn’t sure why Erwin seemed to oppose the engagement plan but Kenny knew for sure that everything would go according to his plan.

“That kid has never dated anyone seriously,” Kenny sighed, “remember Petra? You liked that girl and it seemed like he treated her special but in the end he let go of her and she got married with another man.”

Elise frowned, “I was disappointed when Levi didn’t marry Petra, but maybe their relationship was never like what I thought. Isn’t it wonderful if this time he had finally found the right woman?”

Her husband let out a low growled. To other people it might look like he was the one who wear the pants in their marriage, well that wasn’t wrong actually but Elise had been married to Ackerman for more than thirty years to know how to get what she wanted from her husband. Kenny might look like an irresponsible husband but just a smile from his wife was actually enough to make the man succumb.

“Fine,” he opened up the newspaper and continued to read it, “then why don’t you invite them to have dinner with us. That way we can make sure if the lass he chose was not only after his money.”

.

Zoe looked weird when she walked out of the hospital room. That woman had always been weird but as soon as she closed the door behind her, she took a deep breath and there was something in her eyes which Levi couldn’t interpret but he knew it meant something.

As the walked in the long corridor, she was unusually quite and that made the shorter guy wondered what had actually happened behind the closed door between her and her friends. She had never looked like this before.

“Are you hungry?”

Zoe turned to see the man as they walked into the parking area, that had been the first converstation between them after she left Nanaba’s room, “now that you mentioned it, I am starving.”

Levi nodded, “Ok, then we will stop at the Chinese restaurant we saw the other day, what do you think?”

Zoe nodded and grinned, “Oh, that sounds good! I wonder if they have delicious meat bun!”

“They should have it,” Levi hated to admit it but he felt slightly relieved because she turned back as her usual self as they talked about lunch. 

“WAIT!”

Both Levi and Zoe stopped and turned to see a boy around fifteen or sixteen yearold running at them. Levi frowned as he had no idea what the teenager want from them. The dark haired teenager stopped two meters in front of the fake couple, trying to catch his breath. He wore a maroon scarf and worn out jeans, when he looked up, Levi could see the emerald orbs shining as he looked at them.

“Tsk,” Levi narrowed his eyes, the teenager looked like someone from poor family, he wondered what he wanted from them. He was about to tell the boy to get lost when he heard the woman next to him said something.

“Eren?” 

The boy breathing hard as he walked toward them. 

Levi looked at the woman with a weird look. So this woman knew the brat.

“What are you doing here?”

The boy named Eren ignored her question. He glared at Levi before turned to Zoe, “Who is this guy...”

Levi was about to warned the boy to watch his word when the next word the boy said caught him out of guard.

“...Mama?”  
.  
.  
TBC


	10. Chapter 10

Levi didn’t know why but he was more than slightly irritated. He had planned to have meal together with his pretend girlfriend after they visit her best fried in the hospital. They would go to the fancy chinese restaurant and then maybe they could talk about the next plan about their relationship. Their fake relationship.

He clicked his tongue, feeling annoyed. Well, there was no way they could talk about it with that kid around. Her kid. He had complicated feeling about this. Of course she might have kid or anything and it was none of his business but there was a weird feeling in his gut when his eyes met the kid’s green ones. From the way the boy looking at him, he knew the kid didn’t like him, it didn’t matter really, but he had this unsettling feeling in him which made him worried about something he didn’t even understand.

Chinese restaurant turned into family restaurant near the hospital, not a place he would usually choose to eat, and the two of them turn into three.

“Mama, who is this guy?”

“Eren...” Zoe tried to scold her son but to Levi she didn’t seem like she was trying at all, “Umm, this is Mr. Levi, he is my... uhm, client...”

The boy frowned, didn’t like it at all, he knew what she had been doing to get money and he had never been happy with that, “you are sleeping with this guy, Mama? Is he the reason you hadn’t been home these days? Are you going to move in with him?”

“Well kid, your mama is living with me, and she will stay with me from now on,” Levi sneered, ignoring Zoe’s glare at him, “what? That’s the truth?”

“Only for a while,” Zoe said quickly, she kicked Levi’s leg under the chair, “Mike told you that I have business to do, right? I am sorry I haven’t come home but I will... Oh and I will call you too. You’re still staying with Armin, right?”

The green orbs looked into her hazel ones, “are you gonna leaving me, Mama?”

Zoe felt her heart broke at his tone. That was an innocent question. She knew he didn’t mean bad by asking that, but somehow, it hurt her heart when he looked at her like that and asked that question. How could he thought that she would throw him away. He was her son and she would not have heart, never, to do that. All the thing she did was for him. She would never abandon him for any man in this world. Even though that man is Levi.

“Oh Eren...” Zoe shook her head, “I would never do that! I have to stay with Levi for now, but I promise I would keep contact with you through Nanaba and Mike okay? Oh... when this is over I would buy the basketball shoes you’ve always wanted, the one like that Reiner kid’s. How does it sound?”

Levi drank his drink as he eyeing the young boy. He looked nothing like Zoe except for his dark hair. His skin was tanned and he was rather skinny for a boy his age but his face looked older than his age. His green eyes looked like he was angry about something but he wasn’t sure what, maybe the kid was angry at the world for letting his mother working as a whore. Who knows.

Eren’s eyes met with Levi’s icy blue ones. He didn’t say anything but somehow Levi could understand what that meant. The brat wanted to make sure if his mother would be fine with him. Stupid brat, who he thought Levi was? Levi might be rude and rough but he had no intention to do anything to hurt the woman. They had a deal and he didn’t have any intention to break it. However, Levi understood the brat’s feeling, he also would do anything for his mom—including paying a prostitute to play his pretend fiancee.

The older man somehow had a complicated feeling about this. He didn’t want it to be more complicated than now, but he had a feeling that he had to do something about it, to prevent a bigger problem in the future.

“You know what,” Levi sighed as he put down his cup, “let’s do this, you two could see each other every Sunday afternoon. Around lunch maybe, or dinner, you choose. I will tag along of course, to avoid trouble.”

Eren looked suspiscious but he looked at Zoe who looked surprised and happy at the same time.

She clapped her hands excitedly, “we could do that? Seriously?”

Levi shrugged, “Yeah, why not.”

“Why should you tag along?” Eren grunted, “I don’t wanna see you every Sunday.”

“Shut up, brat,” Levi scolded the boy, “don’t get it wrong, it’s not like _I_ want to see you every Sunday. If you don’t like it, we can always cancel this arrangement, and you couldn’t meet your mother until her business with me done—let me remind you it is not anytime soon. So take it or leave it.”

Eren’s face turned red. He clenched his fists on the table and gritted his teeth meanwhile Levi rested his back and folded his arms, he looked at the boy with a bored look. Eren frowned and turned at Zoe as if to ask her to punch Levi in the face. Zoe laughed instead. She pat Eren’s head and messed his dark hair.

“It is a good idea, isn’t it, Eren! I bet Levi would love to treat us lunch or dinner every Sunday!” Zoe gave the man a teasing look.

He tsk-ed, “fine, no problem.”

Zoe blew Levi a kiss. The man rolled his eyes and they boy looked at the man with a killer gaze.

.

.

“How old is he?”

Zoe was sitting on the carpeted floor, her back rested on the couch, she had just taking a shower, her hair was wet but she didn’t bother to dry it first before turned on the TV and watched it. She was wearing a black tank top and blue short. Her eyes were on the TV screen but she could hear Levi walked closer, from the smell of the familiar soap scent, she knew he also had just taken a shower.

His question was vague but she knew who he referred to.

“He is 15 yearold.” She laughed nervously, “surprised?”

“How old are you?”

Zoe bit her lower lip when he sat on the couch, she could smell his soap and shampoo.

“Does it matter?”

Levi thought for a moment, truthfully, it didn’t really matter. To be honest, Zoe looked a bit younger than he was, but who knew her real age, and he didn’t really actually care about it. “well, it doesn’t.”

“Then I won’t answer that.”

“Ok.”

For a moment both of them didn’t say anything but it wasn’t awkward. Weird, but Zoe kind of like it. It wasn’t like her to enjoy silence but when she was with Levi, she didn’t mind it. She could hear him sighing and looked up at the man, tilting her head to meet his eyes.

The man fold his arms in front of him, he lifted his brow as if telling her to say anything she wanted to say, he was waiting.

Zoe smiled, it seemed like they started to understand each other that they started to be able to communicate with their eyes only.

“Thank you,” Zoe said suddenly, she blushed a little but grinned widely to hide it, “you know, you don’t have to do that—letting me to see Eren every Sunday, but you did it. It means a lot to me... You know that boy had noone but me, so it’s hard for him without me...”

Levi kept her stoic face but Zoe swore she could see his ears turned a bit pink when he frowned at her, “well, it’s nothing. I just did that to avoid trouble, the brat looks like a troublemaker, who knows what he might do if he couldn’t see you for another months.”

Zoe nodded, that was true. She knew her son, he wouldn’t mind to do anything crazy—just like her. But still, Levi was a man with power. He could just... Well, it was levi after all, he might have his own reason and she wouldn’t question it this time.

“That thing aside,” Levi narrowed his eyes as he looked at the woman, “tell me when was the last time you wash you hair, it stinks!”

Zoe pouted, ever since she started living with Levi, she took a shower almost everyday. _Almost._ Well these few days they hadn’t had any lunch or dinner to attend so she hadn’t wash her hair, but it hadn’t been that long, she swore. She couldn’t be that stinky.

“Well, excuse me!” Zoe frowned, imitating Levi’s face and failed, “I washed my hair two days ago!”

Levi groaned, not only had she tried to imitate his expression and fail but the stupid shitty glasses also hadn’t washed her hair for two fucking days—and to think that he let her sleeping in his bed. Oh, no, it wouldn’t happen tonight. Levi stood up from the couch and grabbed Zoe’s arm. He didn’t give a chance for the girl to fight as he pulled her on his way to his private bath room. Zoe was still wearing her hotpants and baggy t-shirt when her fake fiance started the water.

“H-hey... You don’t...”

Levi didn’t let her continue her sentence as he started washing her hair forcefully. Zoe yelped as he poured his shampoo on her head and massage her scalp. It felt better that she thought. He was rough when he pulled her into the bath room but as he massaged her scalp, he was actually being gentle—well as gentle as a Levi could. And after he finished washing her hair, it surprised her that he didn’t stop at that. He actually dried her hair with a clean towel and using a hairdryer.

“I feel like a princess you know,” Zoe laughed as she sat on the carpeted floor once again and Levi back on the couch with her between his leg, drying her hair using a hairdryer, “it felt so good!”

“A princess, really?” Levi snickered, “I felt like a vet grooming a dog.”

Zoe laughed at that.

.

She couldn’t sleep at all that night. She felt weird, after she saw Eren this evening. It was surreal to be at the same table with Levi and Eren at the same time. It seemed like both boys disliked each other but for an unknown reason, deep inside, Zoe thought that Levi and Eren could actually get along together, in a weird way—maybe. She couldn’t believe that Levi would do that. He would let her seeing Eren every Sunday! She started to think that maybe, deep inside, Levi was a nice person. Well, no, she _knew_ he was actually a nice person. She just didn’t understand why he tried so hard to be meany to anyone.

Zoe took a deep sigh, she wanted to move but she afraid that she would wake the man up. It had been few days since they start this sleeping arrangement and this was the first time she couldn’t sleep in this position. Normally, having Levi’s arm around her and feeling his steady breath could lull her to sleep but tonight was different. It had been two—or had it been three?—hours since they went to bed and she couldn’t sleep at all. There were so many things in her head, yet at the same time, she couldn’t think about anything.

She worried about something she didn’t know—if that were even possible. Something she couldn’t explain. She should have been happy because Nanaba seemed to get better than the last time she saw her, it seemed like the medication worked on her, plus she had given Mike some money for that damn Nile... She saw Eren and Levi promised to let her seeing him every week... Those supposed to make her feel relieved.

What was wrong with her?

Everything seemed wrong. Her hair felt so silky after he washed it, her sleeping in the same bed with him, his hands warped around her waist, his breath on her neck.... Those were so wrong, yet felt so right. Suddenly, she was afraid for the future. She enjoyed this moment but after this, all of this, ended, what becomes of her?

Zoe closed her eyes and forced herself to sleep but she couldn’t. 

“Couldn’t sleep?”

Zoe opened her eyes but said nothing. She could feel Levi moved closer to her, she knew from his voice that he was half asleep. He sound almost gentle when he talked.

“Something in your mind?” his warm breath tickles her neck as he spoke.

“Many things,” because Zoe knew he wouldn’t believe ‘nothing’ and that he would not ask further, “too many things running in my head.”

Levi sighed, “ok,” he said sleepily, he inhaled her scent and mumbled, “your hair smells good.”

“It’s your shampoo.” Zoe laughed, “it smells like you.”

“Maybe I should wash your hair again...”

Zoe closed her eyes and smiled.

She would not mind that.

 


	11. Chapter 11

"So you met your Mother?"

The brunette nodded. He was on his way to the bus stop with his best friend. The school ended earlier today because the teachers and staff would have a meeting so he planned to go to the hospital to visit Nanaba. Maybe she heard something from his mother. The blonde boy who walked next to him rubbed his chin, as if thinking about something. Thinking had always been Armin Artlet's strong point but this time the shorter boy couldn't find a logical reason for the reason behind the situation his best friend in.

"He was with a man?" Armin asked again, still rubbing his chin, "hum, given your mother's profession it shouldn't be weird if she were seen with a man, but…"

"This man is different," Eren pouted, "He dressed like some rich guy. You should have seen his car…"

"Where did your mom find this guy?" Armin heard that despite what she did to get money, Eren's mother had never dated a guy before. No one that Eren knew. She was so focus on her family that she had no time for herself.

Eren sighed, "Apparently, he found her."

Armin and Eren arrived at the bus stop. Armin didn't have to go to the hospital with Eren but he would go for an errand for his grandpa somewhere near and decided to wait the bus with his best friend. Both of the boys sat down the seat before they continued the conversation.

"So your mother would stay with this man for… how long?"

"I don't know…" Eren looked annoyed, not by the question, but by the fact that his mother would live with that man. He didn't like that man. He looked so arrogant—and scary, it he wanted to admit it, "I could meet her every now and then though."

Armin nodded but he didn't say anything for a while. He opened the mineral water bottle he brought with him and drank slowly while thinking. He glanced at his friend with his light blue eyes, "well, Eren… what would you do if he wanted to marry your mother?"

Eren turned to him a bit too fast that Armin afraid he might break his neck.

"W-what?!" he looked at Armin in horror, "I don't want that!"

.

The next time Levi met Erwin was at a birthday party of Mrs. Pixis, Dot Pixis' wife. Levi, as usual didn't fancy chit chatting with his uncle. He frowned when the older man smiled at his pretend lover and kissed her hand. What bothered him even more was the fact that the woman, Zoe, didn't seem to be annoyed by the tall man. Judging from the way she laughed when Erwin said something, Levi knew that the woman quite like the blonde business man—and it really bothered him.

Zoe could feel Levi's eyes on her back as she was having a conversation with Erwin Smith. She knew that the short man didn't really like Erwin, but what could she do in that situation? Erwin was charming and nice. She just couldn't be rude to him. She was saved though when Mrs. Pixis approached them with a warm smile to welcome her guests. Zoe relieved when Levi's expression, albeit not too much, softened as she started talking to the lady of the house. At least now he didn't look like he would kill someone.

Zoe was talking about some paintings and artwork of some artist with the Pixis couple when Erwin stepped closer to the shorter man. Levi frowned when his uncle smiled at him. He had an idea what it was about and he didn't really want to talk about it now.

"So," Erwin started the conversation with his trademark smile, one of his weapons during the business negotiation which of course would never work to Levi—unless it meant to annoy Levi then it worked very well, "have you heard about it?"

"About what?" Levi tilted his head, not really interested since he knew where this conversation would go from there.

"Everybody's been talking lately. You know, you've never been seen together with a woman—who's not Petra—in public for more than one occasion. But now…. You've attended every ball, dinner, gala, and whatnot together with a same woman… It was a hot news right now, people start to wonder if there were going to be a wedding bell anytime soon."

The raven haired man growled. He had anticipated the question but still it was so annoying to hear it right from the blond man. Of course he knew Erwin would pester him about it. After all, he knew that his parents had arranged a marriage for him with his cousin, Mikasa who was much younger than him. Levi knew as well, Erwin didn't care with whom he got married but he would want him to get married soon.

Everybody wanted him to settle down and start a family, all for his mother. Of course Levi wanted his beloved mother to be happy. Erwin told her about her sickness and how she started to lost her willing to live. With him getting married, there were chances that Elise would feel better and would get her will to live once more. Levi wanted nothing more than to see his mother happy. But to get married? After seeing how his father treated his mother and how his mother had been suffering because of his father, Levi lost his faith in marriage.

"Why do you asked?" Levi frowned, "it's none of your business."

Erwin raised his thick brow playfully, "so, you haven't propose her?"

"Erwin, listen…"

"No, you listen…" Erwin face was serious when he looked at Levi this time, "Levi, you can't be like this forever. Think about your mom. And Zoe too… She couldn't wait forever, you said you've been dating her secretly this whole time… Now that you've exposed your relationship with her, people would start talking and it might get her insecure…"

"You don't know anything, Erwin." Levi almost rolled his eyes. Erwin could be over dramatic sometime, "I do plan to.. ugh… settle down. So tell mother that don't worry about me…"

"You tell her that yourself." Erwin put back his empty wine flute when a waiter came by and smiled politely before he shook his head when the young man offered him another drink. When he returned his attention to his nephew, he sighed, "your mother really want to meet you… Do this for her, just come back home for a day or two, it would make her happy."

"I don't want to see that old man," Levi said sternly, "We might kill each other if we met each other, it would not make her happy to see her husband and son tried to kill each other like the good ol' days…"

Erwin knew exactly what Levi meant. Ever since he was young, Levi had never been in a good relationship with his father. When he turned fifteen, he punched his father in the face and broke the old man's nose. He was grounded for two months after that. Few years later he left the house and had never been back ever since then.

"Kenny would be in Sinna for 5 days next week," Erwin informed the younger man, "Come home, Levi. Bring Zoe with you. Let your mother feel relieved and at eased for once. You're not a brat, think about your mother will you?"

Levi sighed.  
"I will think about it. No promise though,…"

.

Petra Ral was surprised when her boss, Levi Ackerman—or Levi Rivaille, how he preferred to be referred as—didn't complain when she asked to prolong her vacation. Her husband fell of the stair just after they came back from their vacation and broke his leg. It wasn't that serious but he was being so spoilt that he asked her to take care of him until he got better. Petra thought he was being unreasonable and was ready to be fired when she called Levi, but to her surprised, the short man didn't seem so angry. He was pissed off for a reason—she could tell from his tone—but his anger wasn't directed at her. He didn't tell her what it was about though, just telling her to take good care of her husband and get back to work as soon as she could. Even though he didn't say anything, Petra had a feeling what it was about, she just needed to confirm it. That was why after she hung up the phone call with Levi, she dialed another number.

"I am sorry for what happened to your husband…"

Erwin sounded sincere just like usual, but Petra knew that the man was really good at sweet talking, "well, thank you Erwin, but I didn't call you to talk about my husband…"

Erwin laughed, "Yes of course, it is about your boss, isn't it?"

.

Zoe was lying on the sofa…. Lazily she was changing the TV channel without really intention to watch it. She was wearing only a grey sweatshirt covered up to her tights and matching socks, her hair was in a messy bun and she didn't feel very well today. Levi had just come back from the work half an hour ago and was now taking a shower. He had asked her if she wanted to go out for dinner but she was not in the mood to go out. Thanks God, Levi agreed to that.

She just gave up finding any interesting TV show when Levi entered the room wearing a sweat pant hanging loose on his hips and topless. His hair was half dry and Zoe could smell his fresh scented soap from his body. Damn, she was not feeling well and looking at his abs just made her dizzier.

"So what do you want to eat for dinner?"

The question startled the woman from ogling the man's abs. He raised his brows, arms crossed on his chest when their eyes met. She grinned guiltily for being ogling at him.

"Can we order something? I don't think I am feeling quite well to go out…"

Levi frowned. Her voice sounded weird. And now that he looked at her better, he realized that she looked pale. He sat next to her and touched her cheek, startled the woman but he didn't stop. He touched his forehead to hers and tsk-ed when he felt her temperature.

"You're so hot…"

Zoe laughed despite her throat felt sore, "thank you…"

"That wasn't what I mean," Levi groaned as he pulled away.

The woman grinned, "I know what you mean, sorry, I just tease you."

Levi shook his head, "Lie down here, I will prepare dinner. But for that let's check your temperature first." Before Zoe could protested, Levi had walked to get a thermometer for her, he looked pleased when Zoe had lied down on the couch like ordered when he was back, "this, put this in your mouth."

Zoe did as he told her as he walked to the kitchen. She could hear him opened the fridge and preparing something in the kitchen but from her position she couldn't see what he did there. Soon, Levi was back and looked at the thermometer.

"39.5 Celsius degree?" he looked at her, "are you okay? Do you want to vomit?"

She shook her head, "nope, just felt dizzy and sore throat..."

Levi nodded. He was not a doctor but he thought it was safe to not calling a doctor to come and check her, "just lie here, I will get some blanket for you in the room. I will prepare some soup for you."

Zoe grinned and nodded. Her head was so dizzy and her eyes were hot but she was happy Levi didn't call a doctor. Zoe had never really like doctors. She wouldn't go seeing one unless it was a mandatory to go.

Levi brought the blanket for her and she muttered a thank you. Zoe's eyes felt much better when she closed it so she lied down there with closed eyes while Levi prepared for the dinner for her. If only she didn't have the fever and headache, this would be perfect moment.

Slowly lulled by the sound of Levi making dinner and his out tuned humming, Zoe fell asleep on the sofa.

.


	12. Chapter 12

When her sister told her that she was pregnant, Zoe was jubilant. Her sister was married to her high school sweetheart and after few years trying finally she got pregnant with their first child. Her sister’s pregnancy meant a lot for her because it meant that her family would grow bigger. She waited for the baby to be born impatiently. Ever since her parents abandoned them when she was eight and her sister twelve years old, they both had been always together. It had always been just both of them until her sister got married to her husband. Now another addition to their family would bring more happiness for her. She thought her life had gotten better and better, but her sister died.

It was Friday night, her sister and her husband were having a night out for the first time after they had a baby. Zoe didn’t mind at all to baby sit her nephew and told the parents to have fun. It supposed to be a fun night but both of them were robbed on their way home by drunk teenagers. When she arrived at the hospital, both of them had been pronounced dead. Little Eren was just four month old at the time and ever since that day Zoe had become his parents and only family. She worked so hard for him because she loved him so much. He knew that Zoe was not his real mother but for him she was his mother. He knew how she got money but he didn’t hate her for that. He knew that she had no choice.

Zoe hadn’t dated anyone seriously these past years because that was not her priority. Her priority was Eren. There were not many men who would want to date a whore, let alone one who has a teenager son at home. Zoe didn’t mind thought, for her love and relationship were two things she didn’t need. She had a family, a son, and that was enough for her. She didn’t want to be greedy.

She needed to save her money to move from that area to a safer and better part of the town. Where he and Eren could start a new life. She had saved quite a lot until something happened to her best friend, Nanaba. Now she had to start again twice harder because she also needed to pay for Nanaba’s debt and help paying for her hospital fee. She wanted to quit her dirty job but at the time it was impossible.

One day. She hoped that one day things would get better. If it weren’t for her then at least for Eren. That kid deserved to be happy and she would do everything she could to make sure that the kid would have a bright future ahead.

.

Her forehead was burning under his touch. He sighed as he used a wet towel to wipe her forehead. His other hand which wasn’t busy wiping her sweat was clenched in her grip. She was sleeping but she could still clenched on his hand tightly. He looked at her face and frowned. He hated to admit it but he worried about her. The doctor he called said that she should get better after tonight but it was still fifteen minutes past midnight, there were still hours before morning come and her fever hadn’t gotten any better yet. 

It was weird. These days he had gotten used to sleep next to her, but watching her sleeping was not something he normally would do. It had been more than three hours since he sat here, on the floor next to his own bed, holding her hand and watching her sleeping face. Every twenty minutes he would checked on her temperature. How he wished she would open her eyes and smile annoyingly at him. He might be crazy but these several weeks he had spent with her had made him painfully aware of her smile. She was crazy and annoying but it was better than her being sick like this.

He touched her cheek gently.

“If only it were me who get sick, not you…”

He hated to see her like this. This didn’t suit her. Being sick didn’t suit her. She had always been like a sun to him. He couldn’t wait for the night to end and the morning come. He wanted to see that crazy smile once again.

“Ugh…” 

Levi startled. He looked at her face, searching for any sign of her being awake, “hey, shitty glasses?” he was half whispering, unsure if it was okay for him to let out a noise, “you awake?”

She tossed her head, groaning, he realized her eyes were still closed. Was it nightmare? He touched her cheek with one hand, his other hand never let go of her hand. 

“Hey shitty glasses, I am here… are you okay?” he knew she couldn’t listen to him, he just wished that his touched could make her feeling better.

After few seconds, her eyes fluttered open and he felt relieved when her brown eyes met his ice blue ones. He almost smiled—almost—if only he weren’t so worried about her. Instead of smiling he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand gently. It took another second before her eyes focused on him.

Her voice cracked when she opened her mouth, “Levi?”

“Hey…. You woke up…” he felt a weird feeling filled his stomach. He really wanted to pull her into a tight hug right now, but he wasn’t sure if that was going to be the right thing to do. She could be still dizzy or something, “do you remember fainting on me after dinner?”

“I did?” She frowned.

“You did,” Levi nodded, “You made me worried.”

“I am sorry,” her voice was a bit too weak for his liking. He wasn’t used to see her being like this. He missed her cheerful energetic self, “What time it is now?”

Levi glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table, “it’s almost two… you should go back to sleep.”

Zoe let out a weak gasp, “you were sitting there the whole night?”

He shrugged, “don’t worry about me. You need to sleep. We will talk in the morning when you feel better.”

“No… please… you need to sleep, Levi…. I am okay…” she added with the weakest pout he had ever seen from her “Please? Can you embrace me when I sleep?”

Levi sighed. He had realized it recently that no matter what he said, he secretly couldn’t say no to her when she made that kind of face. So he climb on the bed and adjust himself with the bed cover and pulled her into an embrace. Her skin felt hot touching his but he didn’t mind.

“Now go back to sleep will you?”

Zoe happily obeyed.

. 

Eren looked at the beauty in her arms and cursed silently. He fucked up. His mother would definitely smack him if she knew about this. How does it happened again? Oh yeah… those damn bottle of alcohol. He remembered the teacher at school taught him once about how curiosity killed the damn cat. Oh right now he knew what it means. He was the cat and his mother, despite her love for him, might kill him for this.

He wasn’t old enough for smoking, or drinking alcohol. Well he wasn’t old enough to sneak into the night club. Smoking, drinking alcohol, and going to a night club, all those illegal things in a night. Plus he had sex with a stranger too. The only illegal thing on the list he hadn’t done tonight maybe was only the drug. Hell, he even fought someone tonight. He didn’t really remembered about it but a sting pain on his rib and under his eye confirmed it.

Well at least he got a laid. He was not a virgin anymore. Not that it was something he needed to be proud of. Living in such area, it was a miracle that he had never done anything he did tonight before. 

He closed his eyes again, trying to remember what exactly had been going on. He remembered how Reiner managed to talk him into going to the night club. The alcohol, however, didn’t taste good and the cigarette made him cough. He also dislike how the music was so loud, it gave him headache. So he told Reiner and the other that he would go home first. 

He was about to leave when he saw her. A dark haired girl who looked so out of place in such place. Her pale skin and expensive yet modest clothes looked contrast to the cheap and dirty club. She didn’t have much facial expression but even in the darkness, Eren could see that the girl was annoyed by the fact that some boys were touching her in an overly friendly manner. 

Eren had been tipsy from the alcohol he drank but he would not stay silent when he saw some random guys harassing a girl in front of him. So he did the thing he always did. He started a fight to save the girl—who surprisingly could fight even better than him.

He couldn’t remember what happened after that very well. He remembered Mike came and stop the fight. Then the girl took him to a hotel nearby and dressed his injury. He also remembered she ordered wine from the room service and he say there, drinking wine with the beautiful stranger. He didn’t even remember who started it but the next thing he knew he had sex for the first time in his life. Too bad he was too drunk to actually remember how it felt like.

He wouldn’t complain about it though. At least he did it with a very beautiful girl. He could imagine Jean’s face if he knew about it. That guy always bragging to him how he had his first time with that older girl in the neighborhood, one of the popular bar hostesses in the area. The girl Eren was with was not only beautiful but also a virgin.

Now that he thought about it, maybe it wasn’t a good thing to sleep with a virgin. What if she wanted him to take a responsibility? Not that he minded going out with her, he never had a girlfriend before so this was going to be a good thing for him, but what if she got pregnant? He tried to remember if he used a protection last night. He knew he had some condom in his pocket…

The boy knew that he wasn’t the only one who was awake in that bed. He could feel her long eyelashes tickled his skin as she slowly opened her eyes. He didn’t say anything and so did he. He wondered if she could hear his crazy heartbeat.

“My mom would kill me.” Eren said to no one.

He could feel her warm breath as she sighed, “my parents would disown me.”

“Not before they kill me first,” Eren said thoughtfully, “I would get killed twice.”

She chuckled, for the first time tonight he heard her making such sound. Too bad in their current position he couldn’t see her face. He shifted a bit so he could look at her face. She tilted her head to see his face too. A soft smile on her face, “you’re funny.”

Eren decided that he liked that smile.

He grinned, “nah I’m not. I am Eren, who are you?”

She laughed , “oh, hello… I am Mikasa.”

Oh he also liked the way she laughed.

“So,” he started but didn’t know how to finish. This was something new for him. Talking to a girl his age was not something he normally did, let alone talking to a girl his age who he slept with. One wrong word and it could turn into ugly situation.

“So?” she asked.

“What do you have in mind after this?” it was too late to step back, he needed to say it. He didn’t know what the right thing to say so he just said what he had in his head, “are we going to go separate way and never see each other again?”

“Is there any other option?” she asked, not being cold or bitter but out of curiosity.

He swallowed, “or… would you give me your number so we could go out sometimes and have lunch together?”

He was pretty sure he had no money to bring her to the fancy restaurant but he knew some cheap tasty place in this area. Plus he just had his payment from his part time job last week. If only she didn’t mind going out with him, then…

She sighed. Eren was scared that she wouldn’t tell him her number or if he misunderstood her. Maybe she didn’t want to see him again. Maybe this was really just a one night stand—something which sounded cool before but seemed so cruel now.

“You know, if you don’t want to then it is fine… I just…”

“Hey Eren… would you like to elope with me?”  
.

“Good your fever is going down. You’re still warm though so you stay in bed today.”

Zoe pouted. She felt much better now in the morning and staying in bed was something she wasn’t familiar with unless it was related to sex. It was going to be boring staying there alone the whole day while he was in his office. Waiting for him to come home alone was already a torture. Waiting for him alone in bed while doing nothing would kill her.

“I am gonna get bored, shorty…” she was the only one who would get away from calling him that. Maybe it was something in the way she called him that made it sound more endearing rather than annoying, “what time are you going back this evening?”

Levi took a deep breath. He didn’t want to go to the office but he had too. He would prefer to stay home too today if only that option was possible. Sadly he had to meet someone this afternoon and he had taken a day off yesterday he couldn’t run away again today.

“I would return as soon as I can. So be a good girl and take your medicine. Call me if you feel unwell, understood?”

“Aye aye, sir!”

Levi smirked. He kissed her forehead gently before he left today. She pulled him into a deep kiss though. He managed to pull away before he give into the temptation. He would get late and she was still sick so that was not a good idea. He pecked her on the cheek though and promised her that he would bring her favorite donuts home later before he left her alone in his room.

Zoe felt lonely as soon as he left. He was not the chattiest person in the world but talking to him was fun. She lost count of how many days had she spent in his house. They had gotten closer since the day one she met him. They didn’t have sex. Not that she would mind that. They kissed though. She initiated those kissed though and lucky her despite his protested sometimes he never stopped her.

They hadn’t had sex but the sexual tension was so thick. She could feel that when she deep kissed him earlier. That was the first time she actually deep kissed him even though only for few seconds before he pulled away. She could feel that he also felt that. He was just so stubborn saying he wouldn’t sleep with a prostitute despite how much he wanted her. Yes Levi Ackerman—Rivaille—the successful business man wanted her. She knew it. She could feel it. 

If only he would give them a chance. She knew it was impossible for them to get married or anything more than sex. But even once was enough for her. She would die happy if only he would sleep with her. Once was enough.

Zoe was roaming around the kitchen—there was no way she would stay in bed like a sick person whole day—when she heard the door bell rang. She wondered whether she should ignore it or not but when she the person behind the door insisted and ringing the bell once again, she had no choice but to go to the door.

Her first mistake was to open the door without bothering checking who it was.

“Uh… who are you? Levi’s not home. Maybe you want to come back later?”

The woman in front of her looked surprised at the beginning but she smiled gently as she introduced herself gently. Her pale face and dark hair reminded Zoe of someone.

“Oh hello, my name is Elise Ackerman, I am Levi’s mother….”


End file.
